New Yuletide productions designed to inspire viewers

LEVITT IN “THE NIGHT BEFORE.” Sets out to find the best Christmas party.

LEVITT IN “THE NIGHT BEFORE.” Sets out to find the best Christmas party.

Christmas is the season, not just for feasting, gift-giving and expressing love for God and mankind, but also for watching feel-good films. This season, the new productions designed to inspire us to lead better, more loving lives include—“Love The Coopers,” about four generations of a family that come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. As the evening unfolds, however, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn the night upside-down! (Starring Alan Alda, John Goodman and Diane Keaton.)

In “12 Gifts of Christmas,” a cash-strapped painter makes ends meet for the holiday season by working as a personal Christmas shopper for a wealthy man. As they work together, they learn what Christmas should really be all about.

“Angel of Christmas” is about an antique statue of an angel that turns out to have the spiritual power to bring people together—and that’s exactly what it does to the film’s male and female leads!

In “Merry Matrimony,” ex-sweethearts are forced to work together on a special Christmas pictorial for a magazine—so, they first have to work through all sorts of unresolved hurts and other issues before they can play their “A” game.

“The Night Before” is about three lifelong friends who set out to find the best Christmas party, since their yearly reunions may be coming to an end. Jonathan Levine directs and Joseph Gordon Levitt and Seth Rogen lead the stellar cast.

Finally, in “Christmas Eve,” hilarity, romance and transcendence prevail after a big power brownout traps six different groups of people inside elevators!

KEATON AND GOODMAN. Team up in “Love the Coopers.”

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