Barney's Night Before Christmas

If you can ignore the fake snow, fake singing, and fake yule log and, to paraphrase Jackie DeShannon, "put a little (seasonal) love in your hearts," then the Purple One's Christmas Opus is...tolerable. Here, Barney, Baby Bop, B.J. and the over-aged backyard gang decorate a tree and sing Christmas carols before being magically whisked away to the North Pole for a visit with Santa, followed by a computer-animated train ride through Santa's workshop (filled, thank goodness, with generic toys). Ten years ago, I might have found the song about recording the naughty and nice deeds of children in Santa's book a tad repressively puritan; today, I sing-along while encouraging my 3-year-old grandson to pay particular attention. Sure to be massively popular, this is grudgingly (grinchingly?) recommended. [Note: the DVD includes several extra features, such as eight interactive DVD-ROM games, a sing-along, and a pair of electronic book read-alongs). Aud: P. (R. Pitman)