THE GIFT OF WINTER

One of the most wretched offerings of this or any season, The Gift of Winter features a collection of slick, vaguely human figures, each in a different solid color andeach with an attribute for a name: Malicious is jagged and green overall--hair, skin, clothing; Nicely is fuzzy and pink, etc. The story begins ""long ago"" (but on a street you might come upon' today) when ""winter was cold, bleak, and desolate,"" with the townspeople setting out on a protest march to ""complain to Winter personally."" And so, with little Small and Tender trailing along, they push their way past the officious Minister of Cold and so affect blue, craggy Winter that he cries--white starry tears that fill the countryside with beautiful soft twinkly snow. . . just in time for Christmas. With Winter breaking into song at the end ("". . . it's ever so good to be me""), the whole enterprise seems more than ever like stills for a cartoon special rejected by the networks.