EVERY HOLIDAY theater season guarantees two things: Pageants will lead to more in-costume amateurishness during December than the 11 other months combined, while a fresh batch of anti-Christmas satirical pieces will spring up like an endless army of Heat Miser's backup singers, ready to kick Santa in the 'nads. Vices of Christmas III combines these trends into an unsatisfying melange of rehashed comedic ideas, a much-traveled fruitcake of down-with-Christmas sentiment. Its five one-acts are show-cases of fringe theater for family and friends, i.e., anyone who won't be phased by technical foul-ups or question a hackneyed play's reason to exist.

Sometimes glitches work in your favor. During The Intervention, a comedy of holiday loneliness during which one could shout out upcoming plot points, writer/ director/star Kristin Buchholz brought out the wrong briefcase to place in front of her costar. She quickly stomped off and brought out the briefcase that contained the needed cell phone prop. The swap was handled smoothly and in character, and the resulting question seemed fresher and more exciting than any that came before or after--forget the plot, why does this woman have so many briefcases?

None of the other plays offers a single moment as interesting. View from Venus, an alien's-eye view of Christmas tradition heavy on puns, is staged like a single-camera public access TV show. The Running of the Bucks, a butter-knife stab at Bukowski-style lowlife comedy, provides relentless movement (one character likes plopping to his knees) and endless dead time between cues. Following Buchholz's piece, Three Stops offers a fine performance by Brandon Brown playing the mumbling side of a clearly telegraphed "difficult people connect" story; and Pazuzu's Petals sends the audience home with feckless, semi-dirty, done-before sketch comedy based on It's a Wonderful Life. All in all, Christmas survives better than Seattle's reputation for cutting-edge theate.