New York Times classifies "Die Hard" as a holiday Christmas movie

Cool, let's keep adding to the list of all these Christmas movies.

 

Many great Christmas movies you just listed!

 

Little Women?
Iron Man 3?
Oppenheimer?

Are you really going to call these Christmas movies? That's just dumb.

 

It's more nuanced than that. Die Hard and Gremlins for example, ingrain their Christmas themes into the movie. Other movies like Iron Man 3 merely occur during Christmas time. What defines it is subtle but distinct. Unless your only definition of a Christmas movie is something along the lines of Rudolph, The Polar Express, and/or Elf (just to name a few) it is clear to the unbiased eye that many of the movies originally listed count as Christmas movies.

Edit: If we reeeaaally go down the rabbit hole, anything that is not directly related to the birth of Jesus really couldn't be counted as a Christmas movie in the first place. That seems more like a D&D discussion to me so I won't mention it further other than as a point that many movies traditionally argued as Christmas based are not really at all.

 

Showgirls is the best Xmas movie of all time.

Striptease gets #2

 

I count only 15 Christmas references in the entire 2-hour movie. And if any or all of them were removed, the story would not be impacted in any way.

References to Christmas in Die Hard:

Spoiler

Gruber's team interrups a Christmas party at Nakatomi plaza and there are Christmas decorations in the office area.
Argyle plays a Christmas rap song while driving McClane to the building
On the floor that is under construction, there are misc. Christmas decorations.
McClane kills a bad guy, puts a santa hat on him and writes "ho ho ho" on his shirt
When McClane calls 911, the 911 operators have a christmas tree in the background
While Al Powell is at the convenience store, he's humming along to "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow"
After Al Powell checks the building, as he leaves, he and they bad guy say "Merry Christmas" to each other
At the TV studio, we briefly see Christmas decorations in the background. As they broadcast, they mention that it's Christmas eve.
When bad guy Theo describes the actions of the police, he begins with "Twas the night before Christmas"
When Hans asks Theo about his progress with the vault, he says "It's Christmas, a time for miracles"
When the feds want to cut power to 10 city blocks, Robinson objects and says, "It's Christmas Eve"
When the bad guys open the vault, Theo says, "Merry Christmas"
While the reporter is confronting Holly's Latino house keeper, there is a wreath on the front door.
In the final showdown, McClane uses christmas tape to tape a gun to his back.
The film ends to the song "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow"

I think it's more accurate to say that, because you (and other fans) like the movie so much, you want it to be a "Christmas movie" and are willing to alter your interpretation of the term "Christmas movie" in order to make it fit. But just because you want something to be true, doesn't mean it's true.

Die Hard is truly an excellent movie and it doesn't take anything away from it to say that it isn't a Christmas movie. But, there are many movies (including Die Hard) that occur on Christmas, but are not about the Christmas, not centered around the holiday, and should therefore not be considered Christmas Movies. A perfect example is Little Women, which begins and ends with Christmas, and is a legendary story, but should not be considered a "Christmas movie".

 

I wish this entire debate would die...hard

 

if only home alone 2 has a maria carey song...

 

Is Die Hard a cowboy movie AND a Christmas movie?!?!

 

Happy John McClain Day everybody!

Be sure to wish everyone a "Yippee Ki Yay Motherf@#$&!"

 

Getting that Christmas feeling again!

 

Marvel season 2 episode 3 of What If agrees Die Hard is a Christmas movie as well.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/24/entertainment/peter-billingsley-die-hard-christmas/index.html

 

“Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!...It’s a Bruce Willis movie, so yippee-ki-yay… and good night!” -- Bruce Willis

 

Watched it yesterday. As well as Christmas Story.
Poor Ellis.