Santa's Funniest Moments and Practical Jokes

People falling on the ski slopes, Christmas trees toppling over, morons licking steel poles in subzero weather, shaking packages that accidentally open (such as the bowling ball that lands on one poor sap's foot), Santa's Funniest Moments and Practical Jokes combines home video footage (à la America's Funniest Home Videos) with "hidden camera" skits revolving around such knee slappers as the actor who tries to get a plucked chicken gift wrapped. Hosted by Kirk Cameron (TV's Growing Pains), this grab bag of clips, sketches, and kids' comments is built around a surefire comic premise: people laugh at other people's misfortunes and pratfalls as long as they aren't seriously hurt (I'm embarrassed to admit that the bowling ball on the foot of Mr. Curious made me laugh). The play-by-play voiceover narration describing each clip is generally lame, many of the scenes are repetitive (how many times can you laugh at a falling Christmas tree; happens every year at my house, and I never find it funny), and some of the spontaneous skits look suspiciously planned. Still, larger collections may want to consider due to the long running popularity of similar fare on TV. Optional. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)