"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir. Folks dressed up like Eskimos. Everybody knows…." Written by Mel Torme, few songs evoke the often-whimsical spirit of the holidays like Nat King Cole’s "The Christmas Song" has for over 40 years. It simply wouldn’t be Christmas without hearing that song at least once.

Another rite of passage during the holidays is spending time with the family. Some people eagerly await these family gatherings if for no other reason than it’s the one time of year you know you can indulge your gluttonous side without apology. While others secretly (or not so secretly) dread family gatherings because it’s the one time of year where a room full of neurotics and drama queens are allowed to come home to roost until they make everyone else feel as lousy as they do.

And you can be certain that any number of holiday films will jockey for all that hard-earned disposable cash moviegoers’ won’t be spending on Christmas presents.

On the heels of "Surviving Christmas" and "Christmas With the Kranks," two of the worst Christmas season films ever made, writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s "The Family Stone" will satisfy even the most jaded of ticket buyers. "The Family Stone" is an undeniably sharp and perceptive dramedy that is blessed with a top-notch ensemble cast led by Oscar winner Diane Keaton ("Annie Hall"), Emmy winner Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City"), and Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner Claire Danes ("My So-Called Life"). Set over three days, relationships both familial and romantic are tested and some surprising revelations are brought to light.

Keaton plays Sybil, the matriarch of the Stone family, and Parker is Meredith Morton, the fiancée of Sybil’s oldest son, Everett (Dermot Mulroney). Having already met Everett’s baby sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) and not making a good first impression, Meredith is anything but relaxed when she joins Everett on his annual trip back home for Christmas to meet the rest of his large family for the first time. As Meredith and Everett venture to his New England hometown, Amy is dissing Meredith to anyone who’ll listen, including her father Kelly (Emmy winner Craig T. Nelson), big sister Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), deaf brother Thad (Ty Giordano) and his partner Patrick (Brian White). Upon arriving, Meredith works overtime to impress the clan, including an increasingly hostile Amy.

Meredith couldn’t be more of an outsider within the Stone family. She’s pinched, guarded and unintentionally caustic. They’re loose, outspoken and unapologetically liberal. The only one who’ll give her a break, other than Everett, is his brother Ben (Luke Wilson), whom Sybil affectionately calls "the prodigal son." Meredith calls on her younger sister Julie (Claire Danes) for moral support and she joins her at the Stones’, who take an instant shine to Julie, unlike Meredith. Desperate to get in the others’ good graces, Meredith keeps trying too hard and incurs their wrath during a tense Christmas Eve dinner that morphs into one of the film’s pivotal (and most poignant) scenes.

As was evident with his directorial debut, "Big Eden" (2000), which he also wrote, Thomas Bezucha has a knack for crafting subtle and intimate tales, populated with ordinary, recognizable people. His dialogue and situations ring truer than what’s found in a good number of studio films nowadays.

The actors breathe vivid life into their characters — not one dud performance in the bunch, as was the case with "Big Eden." McAdams continues her streak of strong performances as a young woman dealing with the unexpected reappearance of her first love (Paul Schneider, an actor to watch). Nelson and Mulroney are as solid as we’ve come to expect them to be. Ditto Wilson, who enlivens any film that he appears in. Danes, more luminous than we’ve seen before, is a marvel of subtlety and grace. She literally lights up the screen when she appears. While relative newcomers Ty Giordano and Brian White ("Mr. 3000" and TV’s "The Shield") give pitch-perfect performances as a committed gay couple.

Sarah Jessica Parker, who wisely avoids playing a Carrie Bradshaw clone, is in exceptional form here as is Diane Keaton, who is enjoying a very welcome career upswing as of late. This film marks Keaton’s first big screen outing since earning her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination for "Something’s Gotta Give." There’s little doubt that her incandescent performance in "Family Stone" will yield her a fifth nomination.