Cable offers new films for holiday season

Each December, we face a disturbing possibility:

Might this be the year when Hollywood has run out of plots for Christmas movies?

It seems that way sometimes. Lately, two people have starred as Santa’s daughters (Kathy Ireland, Jenny McCarthy) and three as his sons (Tom Cavanagh, Steve Guttenberg, and Kelsey Grammer).

Vince Vaughn was his big brother; Will Ferrell was his confused elf.

We’ve had a sick Santa, an arrested Santa, a dead Santa. Christmas has been saved by Ernest, Tim Allen, Vaughn and (in a dark delight called “Hogfather”) by Death itself.

We’ve also had lots of Christmas films that had nothing to do with Santa whatsoever.

Is anything left? Well, consider cable’s ABC Family channel, with its annual “25 Days of Christmas.” There are a lot of reruns, but now we get to its new movies for this year:

“”Holiday in Handcuffs,” airing tonight: A young woman (Melissa Joan Hart) wants to impress her family during Christmas, so she kidnaps a handsome stranger (Mario Lopez) and claim he’s her boyfriend.

“”Snowglobe,” which premieres Saturday. A young woman (Christina Milian) who longs for an idyllic Christmas is transported in and out of a snow globe.

OK, the current trend apparently doesn’t involve realism.

Still, there is some fun to be had. Hart, for one, could push her character to the edge of daftness.

“You get to play two different characters, almost,” she says. “She can be shaky and frantic, but she also has times when she’s sort of normal.”

More odd twists were needed, including the basics: This guy can’t convince her parents (Markie Post and Tim Bottoms) or grandmother (June Lockhart) that he was kidnapped.

To do this, “Handcuffs” creates a truly daft family. Still, Hart considers that believable.

“My mom and Markie Post could trade places,” she insists.

Paula Hart has been a key part of her daughter’s career, as manager and head of their production company. During the holidays, she also hosts parties, assembling all or most of her eight children and assorted grandchildren.

Still, we’re not talking about the Osmonds here. Melissa, 31, says this is a clan filled with passionate New Yorkers.

“You get a lot of yelling,” she says. “Dinner is not family dinner unless someone is screaming at someone.”