Stockingful

For, outside of a stockingful of guineas, all her capital was sunk in Merry-Garden, and all Merry-Garden hung now on the boy's life.

On a very deep level, then, they are one: the pint-sized demon at your door Halloween night who (formally, at least) exchanges his or her forbearance from soaping your windows for a handful of candy, and the jolly old elf who is imagined to slither down the chimney and exchange a hurried snack for stockingsful of joy — or judgment.

More talent show than bona fide production, Sweetback Productions' stockingful of hit-or-miss fare would be most at home at a holiday party in an actor's apartment--an impression that the climb to a crow's-nest studio only amplifies.