Have yourself a merry -- or whatever -- 'Colbert Christmas'

If you've ever watched a self-indulgent, celeb-fronted Christmas special and rolled your eyes at the glops of Velveeta cheese that drip off the program, "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!" will have you in stitches. It's a surreal hour, a Colbert-centric skewering of holiday-season specials.

The program begins with "broadcasting legend" Stephen Colbert, clad in a red turtleneck and white cardigan, welcoming viewers to his mountain cabin where he pens new Christmas carols so he can earn royalties from them. (Look carefully and you'll notice a photo of Mr. McFeely from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on Colbert's refrigerator.)

This good-natured spoof (10 p.m. EST Sunday, Comedy Central) features a bevy of guest stars who sing seven newly penned tunes with lyrics by "Daily Show" executive producer David Javerbaum and composed by Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne.

Guest performers include Willie Nelson, Feist, Toby Keith, John Legend and Elvis Costello, whom Colbert introduces this way: "For my younger viewers, he's kind of like an older, male Avril Lavigne, but instead of skateboarding, he sings about people dying in shipyards."

Colbert's plan to make it to the studio to tape his special is thwarted by a bear outside his cabin, and he's desperate not to miss the taping, fearing it would result in Christmas not coming.

Keith visits Colbert's cabin to sing about "the war on Christmas," which features hilarious visual accompaniment of stock footage and new animation. Keith complains about store employees wishing him "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," and Colbert tries to one-up him in conservative agitation, claiming, "I heard in San Francisco it's legal to marry your Christmas tree."

Jon Stewart drops in to sing about Hanukkah, but Colbert rejects him: "I'll keep Jesus, you keep your potato pancakes."

The show is not a family affair due to scattered innuendo -- including a reference to Colbert's Yule log -- but it should be a hit among fans of "The Colbert Report" and anyone who enjoys off-kilter parody.

"A Colbert Christmas" ends with a pitch for the show's DVD, which will be in stores Tuesday ($19.99) with many amusing extras, including an optional laugh track, a book-burning Yule-log video, three alternate endings (dream, death-by-bear and "Twilight Zone"-y death-by-Jon Stewart), a bonus song (Colbert singing "Cold, Cold Christmas") and a 25-day video Advent calendar (Colbert on Dec. 2: "Wow, I am out of ideas. Oh, God, this was a mistake. I've got nothing.").

(Contact TV editor Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)