REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Not All Season’s Movies Are Gifts to Cinematic Art : But their wholesomeness may bring back memories of Christmases past.

The only thing more hectic than Christmas shopping is the holiday movie season.

This year an unprecedented seven films are scheduled for national release on Dec. 25. Add to that another seven films set to debut earlier in the week and several films coming out after Christmas Sunday and you’ve got a huge traffic jam at the turnstiles.

You may want to stay home. If you do, here’s a shaggy list of some lesser-known holiday movies:

“Christmas in Connecticut”--no, not the 1945 fluffy romantic comedy starring Barbara Stanwyck. This is the pointless 1992 made-for-cable redux that’s notable because it’s the directing debut for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Directorial credits for Arnie have been slow to materialize since.

In “A Christmas Carol,” June Lockhart fans will instantly recognize this picture as the one in which Lockhart made her film debut. Be sure you get the one filmed in 1938. There are several remakes of the classic Dickens story, a couple of them far too good to be included here. The 1951 British version directed by Brian Desmond is probably the best. Avoid it.

“Christmas Eve”--Loretta Young made her celebrated return to acting after a 23-year hiatus in this hokey 1986 melodrama about a dying grande dame determined to track down her three grandchildren.

On the subject of Loretta Young and Christmas, consider “The Bishop’s Wife,” in which Cary Grant performs as an angel come to Earth to set straight the lives of Young and her minister husband (David Niven), who have forgotten the importance of family. Sound like a familiar theme? Jimmy Stewart made a similar movie one year earlier in 1946.

You could make it a Loretta Young holiday viewing frenzy. Also check out “Come to the Stable,” a 1949 film, in which Young plays a French nun living in New England.

Not enough wholesomeness for ya? Here’s how the video sales market is shaping up.

Disney will flood video stores with 27 million copies of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” for the holiday buying season. Another big title for video buyers this year, based on the number of copies ordered, will be “Jurassic Park,” with more than 12 million copies shipped.

One title that will attract plenty of attention even if it doesn’t sell as big as Snow White is the O.J. Simpson workout video. Playboy Entertainment Group, which produced the tape geared toward sedentary men, said it will go ahead with plans to sell the video during the holiday buying season as originally intended.

The video sells for $17.95.

“Yeah we have that one,” said Jim Salzer, owner of Salzer’s Video in Ventura. “I got that along with a couple of other things I never thought I’d buy. I’ve got a John Wayne Bobbitt porn video and Tonya Harding’s Honeymoon video.”

Salzer said it goes against his sense of ethics to stock the tapes, “but my 21-year-old daughter told me I had to get them.”