Discussion: Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?

More of Die Hard is set at Christmas than It's A Wonderful Life.

However. The main character in It's A Wonderful is suicidal. So, their Christmassy credentials sort of even out.

 

It think it depends on how you define what a ‘Christmas Movie’ is. For me, it’s a narrative that centers on the themes and nature of what the holiday represents: peace on earth; good will toward man; charity and kindness. That’s . . . not Die Hard. So, for me, no, it’s definitely not a ‘Christmas Movie’.

But if a ‘Christmas Movie’ to someone else is just a movie that happens to take place largely around Christmas time, then sure, ‘Christmas Movie’. Why not?

 

Great points eeprom!

Up until I read your post, I was on the "It's a Christmas Movie" side. But it's really just incidental. If you took all the Christmas references out of Die Hard, it would remain the same. The Christmas party could easily have been a birthday party or something else. Christmas isn't central to the story.

Now I kind of wonder if Home Alone is a Christmas movie...

 

At its core, Die Hard is the story of a broken marriage that’s only repaired once the husband demonstrates (to absurdist extremes) how much his wife truly matters to him.

Like you said, it isn’t the nature of the holiday that’s bringing them back together. It’s the severe circumstance of the hostage crisis. There’s a lot of Christmas stuff in it, but not much of any actual Christmas spirit.

To me it is. It’s a fun riff on Dicken’s Christmas Carol. In a season of family and togetherness, Kevin wished his family away. He was (understandably so) selfish in the face of a holiday that asks you to be selfless. Over the course of the story, he learns and embraces the key values of Christmas by properly cherishing what he’s lost

And . . . he also remorselessly brutalizes a couple half-witted burglars - gleefully doling out karmic justice . . . you know . . . for kids!