What Constitutes a Christmas Movie?
Quick history of Christmas:
Birth of Christ, celebrated later during pagan winter solstice celebrations as a feast day. A feast day was something like Thanksgiving meets Mardi Gras. The belief was that the winter was chosen by Europeans because its cold, wet, sad, and dark, and a feast day was needed to break up the monotony of not having electricity and thermal underwear. Cut to: Nineteenth century. American businesses, particularly catalog companies, begin to collect images and traditions from around Europe and America in an effort to sell toys, candy, food, and Pokémon cards. That’s where Santa, mistletoe, Christmas trees, wrapping paper, decorations, lights, popcorn balls, gingerbread houses, ugly sweaters, and holiday stress came in. Now there are countless traditions all over the world that can’t possibly be catalogued because the holiday has become so many things to so many people. Including the movies that are about the holiday.
But what constitutes a Christmas movie?
The fun narrative for some these days has been to challenge the traditional notion of a Christmas movie. Its not really that clever, but I’ve already stated that the holiday is a lot of things to a lot of people. Die Hard is the example, and Lethal Weapon is usually next up. Both movies set at Christmastime, also co-written by the same guy. The former is during an office Christmas party, and the latter is a police action story that concludes on Christmas. They’re set at the right time, so why not?
Here's the thing. I don’t consider them Christmas movies, but I also can’t disqualify them, either. More later.
It’s A Wonderful Life is the ultimate Christmas movie to me. It’s one of my favorite movies, it was played ad nauseum during the holiday season for decades, and there’s a good amount of snow in it. The thing is, IAWL isn’t about Christmas at all. The frame story happens on Christmas Eve, but the movie is a flashback that takes place throughout the year. Even the final song is Auld Lang Syne, the stupid New Year’s Eve song that no one understands! So why is this the modern apex of Christmas movies? Maybe because it was shown at Christmas so much?
There’s a mix of other classics and modern classics to consider. Miracle on 34th Street is about Santa, so that’s a slam dunk. Elf has an elf, and that’s about it. Good enough. You have Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause and other clumsy comedies. There are romantic ones, horror ones, raunchy ones. But they can’t all be Christmas movies by the same definition, right? How can Bad Santa and The Bishop’s Wife be in the same genre?
So, because I think too much, I may have cracked the case. I think we just need a little organization. First, does the movie embody the spirit of Christmas in some way? It’s A Wonderful Life does, so I’ll put that in the Christmas Spirit section of the Blockbuster Video shelves in my mind. That goes for all Scrooge-based movies including Scrooged. These movies are about the spirit of giving, a life-altering experience that changes a prick into a generous guy. That kinda stuff.
Then, there are Christmas Comedies. That’s for Christmas Story, Elf, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, et al. These can be G-rated to R-rated, but there is some notion of the holiday spirit mixed with fart jokes or some of the realistic details of our modern capitalistic approach to the holiday. Lots of trips to the mall, a sledding scene, crazy family bullshit that upends tradition.
A Christmas Setting is just that. A story that could have happened at any time that just unfolds at Christmas. Two strangers meet and fall in love. A bank heist in the snow. A bunch of gremlins run around and destroy everything. A lot of the Hallmark movies that play around the clock throughout December may fall into this category. Lots of soap actors and former stars finding love in a small town in between scenes at a jewelry counter.
By this definition, Lethal Weapon is a Christmas Setting movie. But Die Hard is not. It’s during a Christmas party which could be the only time the villain’s plan could take place. McClane is coming to see his family for the holidays. It has the theme of family reconciliation. Holy crap, can Die Hard really be a Christmas Spirit movie?