It's that time of year again -- awaiting the autumn leaves, dusting off the old box of home decorations, and predicting the annual ritual of holiday DVD reissues. And here I am still wearing white after Labor Day.

This year, though, at least three of the major holiday films are returning to home video with more than just a change of their red ribbons. This time Blu-ray high-definition gets a checkmark on the wish list, as well as newly improved, remastered transfers of old favorites.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas -- Collector's Edition

If the marketing is any indication, the full official title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah, sure, you can see Burton's gothy fingerprints all over it, but let's hat-tip Henry Selick, who directed it, and Caroline Thompson, who wrote the screenplay. No matter who gets the marquee spot, together they created one of our finest and most steadfast modern holiday favorites.

What a way-outside-the-box project this was -- an animated (traditional stop-motion plus hand-drawn cells plus carefully utilized CGI) musical about a skeleton who first hijacks and then saves Christmas, when he's not being wooed by a literal doll who had her own life infused in a mad scientist's lab. And oh yeah, his dog is a ghost and the vampires have a contest for most blood drained. You know, for kids! Creative, whimsical, and worth revisiting every year, this one has really taken hold. Just look at how often it's been released on DVD!

This time, though, Walt Disney's new two-disc Collector's Edition -- now available on DVD and (What's this?! What's this?!) Blu-ray high-definition -- is more than just a retread or a sly repackaging. The Nightmare Before Christmas is back in its original widescreen aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 widescreen televisions. This new anamorphic transfer is fresh-looking and vivid and screaming with both color and detail. In a word, it's gorgeous, and a noticeable uptick from the quite good previous DVD edition from a few years back.

Extras include a new audio commentary by Tim Burton, director Henry Selick, and Music Designer Danny Elfman. Although the participants were recorded individually, the editing is seamless for a lively, informative track. (The previous commentary track on the original Special Edition is not included this time around.)

Also here are numerous behind-the-scenes "making of" features, Tim Burton's original source poem narrated by Christopher Lee (illustrated with animated original sketch art), "Backstage Disney," "Jack's Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour," Burton's short films Frankenweenie (with a new intro by Burton) and Vincent, deep-drilling explorations of Halloween Town, Christmas Town, and the Real World as depicted in the film, deleted scenes, a storyboard-to-film comparison, and more.

You also get a downloadable version of the feature film suitable for iTunes devices, and the 3-D embossed Jack Skellington box is pretty nifty too.

Official site: www.nightmarebeforechristmasdvd

Dr. Finklestein's Lab Widget: www.drfinklesteinslabwidget.com

Linus: Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world.

Sally: That's a good story.

Linus: You don't believe the story of the Great Pumpkin? I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting.

Sally: Welcome to the 20th century!

Is this the greatest holiday special ever aired on network TV? Or is it simply the finest Halloween special, with that other Peanuts classic taking the top rung at Christmastime? No matter. With a staying power well earned from its pitch-perfect storytelling, charming animation, and evocative atmospherics, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a season tradition as reliable and enjoyable as trick-or-treating and TP'ing old man MacMurray's tree. And as a tradition, watching this ageless Charles Schulz masterwork is a pleasure the original kids who got hooked on it back in the 1960s and '70s are lately sharing with their kids.

I love what Michael Atkinson says about it this week at IFC.com: "...one of the great masterpieces of American television, a waist-high autumnal idyll like no other, and as evocative of a preteen universe -- a place where Halloween has epochal significances, if it's always difficult to figure out exactly what they are -- as any film made in English."

Now 42 years after its 1966 premiere, the travails of hardcore true believer Linus in that pumpkin patch, Charlie Brown at the Halloween party ("I got a rock"), not to mention a certain World War I flying ace in the trenches of Ardennes, have been remastered by Warner Brothers for a noticeable upgrade in image clarity. As a long-time fan of Great Pumpkin, I was able to compare this new Deluxe Edition with Paramount's previous DVD edition from eight years ago. The newly remastered image is clearer and sharper than the earlier edition's, and the digital transfer has likewise been improved significantly.

The extras include two items new to this edition. The first is the 1981 animated short, It's Magic, Charlie Brown (24 minutes). The original voice cast has been replaced, and the late jazz maestro Vince Guaraldi is no long behind the music, but this well-made charmer was written by Charles Schulz and produced by director/animator Bill Melendez. It's a minor entry in the Peanuts animated canon, but welcome all the same. The second new extra is "We Need a Blockbuster!", the 14-minute "making of" retrospective about Great Pumpkin. On hand for warm reminiscences are Peanuts historian Scott McGuire, Charles Schulz's son Monte, Bill Melendez, producer Lee Mendelson, former CBS programming executive Fred Silverman, and others. It's a nostalgic look back to a different geologic era in TV and animation history.

This edition also makes available the ability to download two songs from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, compatible with iTunes devices. No one anticipated that in 1966.

Official site: www.peanutsdvd.com

And finally, this one gets me as excited as that time I won a Major Award. Warner Home Video has announced a 25th Anniversary DVD and Blu-ray "Ultimate Collector's Edition" of the perennially shown holiday classic A Christmas Story.

What makes it Ultimate? Well...

The DVD tin will go for $39.99 SRP. The Blu-ray edition ($49.99 SRP) will include the same special features all on one disc, plus add a string of leg lamp holiday lights.

The stand-alone, previously released single version of the film will also be available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Look for all these coming November 4.

It'll put someone's eye out.