To cut to the chase: if you watch it during the holiday season, then it’s a holiday movie–enough said.
Image: “Snowing in front of a historic movie theater, the Whiteside, in Corvallis, Oregon. Homeless person to the right, walking with covered shopping cart.” Author: Bridges2Information/ Laurie Bridges. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia.
A few days ago, in a conversation with friends, the same question that has come up every year for, what, the last decade, came up again:
“Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?”
My response was pretty blunt, probably to the point of unintentionally sounding like I was annoyed:
“If it is something you watch during the holidays, then it’s a holiday story.”
I understand that this is still too broad a definition. I feel like Scott McCloud taking readers through the definition of “sequential art”–you start with “comic,” then realize you have to keep making the word choice more specific (not a “comic,” instead “sequential art”) and specifying the definition more and more to get to something that is both detailed so not to apply to any illustrated art, but still open enough to include newer examples as new technology and publications emerge.
(Heck, my own definition for “Christmas” and “movie” is not going to be very accurate in what follows: instead of “Christmas,” I should be saying “winter holidays”--and even then, it’s not “winter” in all parts of the world, and not “holidays” for all people, and these aren’t only “movies” but also TV specials and new media content–but now I’m just wasting time on the most accurate word choice and not getting to the point.)
This question, “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” is less one to have a hard and fast definition for a holiday story–and much more to let people share what they enjoy watching during the holidays. It’s the equivalent of that ice breaker question, “If you could have only one superpower–invisibility or flight–which would you take?” The point isn’t that the question has one and only one answer; the point is that the question exposes something about you. It says what entertainment you enjoy, how you spend the holidays, whether you watch with other people, what your fondest memories are about, and what you end up watching in December.
For some of us, it has to be a story that has a winter holiday in the title: A Christmas Carol, A Rugrats Chanukah, The Proud Family episode “Seven Days of Kwanzaa.”
For some of us, it has to be a story that has at least one scene that takes place on or around the holiday: Tokyo Godfathers, It’s a Wonderful Life, Shazam. Sometimes it’s self-aware that it is not quite at Christmastime: the Community “it’s December 10th” joke, or the Mary Tyler Moore episode with a Christmas cooking episode filmed as early as November. Or it’s a film where just one small scene of it happens during Christmas, such as the climax to Grumpy Old Men.
And for the rest of us, it is something–a film, a TV special–that we just happen to watch every December, even if it has nothing to do with the winter holidays, or the winter season, or snow, or December.
Maybe that something is Die Hard.
Or maybe when the holidays came in, and your family visited, and you finally get to catch up with them after having months of no breaks from work or school and you finally get to watch that movie with them that you couldn’t see together in theaters but is now out on video or streaming, or a marathon of a TV show that you wanted to check out but wanted to wait until you were all in one place and you have avoided spoilers for months but now can marathon together. Maybe you and your friends haven’t gotten to marathon a certain anime yet–so you wait until you have time off during the holidays and watch together as a group the Dragon Ball Super tournament arc, or get through all of the first season of Spy x Family, or go retro and stream a classic anime you haven’t seen yet. Or there is a new Marvel series you haven’t seen yet and that becomes your holiday viewing (there is a reason Disney Plus made sure to release Hawkeye in between Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Look at the films that came out in US theaters in the last 30 or so years during the winter holiday season–that don’t have as obvious a connection to those holidays. You may think those films are “holiday” films because you remember what the season was like when you first saw them in theaters: cold air while you wait outside the theater for friends to show up, or the Christmas tree you pass by in the theater lobby to get your snacks, or all the trailers before the films announcing “This Christmas, see the film that is the holiday event of the season!”
Maybe that was a Star Wars film for you, because so many of them came out in December. I know people who treat JRR Tolkien stories as holiday stories, not only because of the live-action films coming out in theaters in December but because the animated adaptations were often shown on TV in December. Or Titanic, because it came out in December…and because there is technically ice in it. (Sorry–joke in poor taste is in poor taste.)
Granted, we could take this to extreme situations as well. What if one of your fondest memories was seeing Tron: Legacy in a theater in December–is that now suddenly your holiday film? If you had really fond memories of it, especially if it was with someone whose company you appreciate, yes, that is your holiday movie. Same if it was the Christopher Reeves Superman–it came out in December, its Smallville scenes evoke a Norman Rockwell painting as well as any Christmas illustration, why not make that your holiday movie? Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out in December in the US, as did Bumblebee and Djano Unchained–make those your ass-kicking Christmas movies as good as any Patrick Swayze Christmas this year.
Or maybe it wasn’t even a film that first came out during Christmas–but over the years has become part of the season. The Iron Giant takes place in winter, but that film was released to theaters in the summer. Maybe you visited your family and went to a late-night one-off special screening at the independent cinema for a film that rarely gets a theatrical release–something classic like Casablanca or Citizen Kane, or something obscure like Plan 9, or a cult classic–which, in that case, that makes Rocky Horror your holiday movie…which, sure, why not.
Or, maybe that special film or TV special you watch every December has nothing to do with winter or the holidays–but maybe a seasonally appropriate theme, like family, togetherness, love, giving, sacrifice. I already brought up Tolkien above, but maybe his works are also for the season, that idea of giving up something to protect others is apt for the season–whether we’re getting into religion, which, yeah, I’m trying to avoid any Christlike sacrifices in this discussion in what have been a lot of secular or at least non-denominational stories. (Hell, I avoided bringing up the Narnia movies, and at least one of those also came to US theaters in December). Maybe there is just that one really good episode from a TV show that makes you think “family,” or making someone’s day all the better with the perfect gift–or being excited for something you have set your heart on and the work you did to get it, or the work someone else did to give it to you.
And that choice–a story about the work you did to get something, or the work someone else did to get it for you–does seem to be part of that answer to the question, “Is your favorite holiday viewing really something appropriate for the season?” Being able to point to that film or special you just have to watch each December probably at least in some small way shows what the season means to you. And given how many of us are going to have different answers to that question, about what the holidays mean to us, no wonder we’re still stuck debating whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
What is your favorite winter holiday movie or TV show? What about it makes it seasonally appropriate to you, and what do you think that says about you?
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