When is a movie a Christmas movie?

Posted by Bill Wren

Christmas Day is unfolding before us. At some point, our minds will turn to movies – well, mine will. So I spent a little time looking online to see what various people considered the top Christmas movies (there are oodles of lists out there).

What is interesting, to me, is what people consider a “Christmas movie” to be. For example, Rotten Tomatoes has a list of their Top 25 Christmas movies. You’ll see they describe their process of selection – their criteria. Elsewhere, I noticed a lot of lists that stated overtly or, through implication, criteria. They seemed to vary quite a bit.

Perhaps it’s because I have criteria in my own mind, not well articulated, of what constitutes a Christmas movie to me. Because I have this idea, many of the lists I found struck me as odd (like the Rotten Tomatoes list).

A movie’s story takes place at Christmas. Is it therefore a Christmas movie? If so, the question becomes how much of the movie takes place then? You’ll notice Rotten Tomatoes says, for their list, “… movies in which Christmas only plays a small part …” are excluded. But then the question becomes, how small? In other words, it’s pretty subjective.

Here’s the thing, though … As far as I’m concerned, this is niggling. I think, more than anything else, the subject and tone of a movie make it a “Christmas movie.” That’s why for me movies like “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” aren’t even considered. They’re action movies. A Christmas movie is drama and/or comedy and/or romance. There is also a fairly good dose of sentimentality – sometimes far too much. (Though you do get some leeway with Christmas movies as it’s expected.  Still, if you go too far over the top you fall flat.)

I saw one list that included An Affair to Remember. I believe it’s just the tail end of the movie that occurs around Christmas. In fact, I’ve never thought of it as a Christmas movie. However, now that I have, I think it does qualify because of it’s subject and tone. (And heaven knows, it has sentimentality.)

In recent decades, we’ve seen more Christmas-themed movies that have a kind of deconstructionist approach to Christmas movies. That’s a hoighty-toighty way of saying that satire and cynicism play a part in them, even if they do end with a traditional sentimental conclusion. For example, there’s Bad Santa. (I plan to watch it again to see if I have the same opinion I originally had, which was a pretty low one.) Is this a Christmas movie? It’s a long, long way from It’s a Wonderful Life.

There is also a movie like Scrooged, a movie I like mainly for Bill Murray’s performance (an almost perfect Scrooge). But compare it to the 1938 and 1951 versions of A Christmas Carol (Scrooged is essentially a remake of that story). Those earlier versions were sentimental dramas. Scrooged is a comedy, somewhat satirical,  with a happy ending.

I don’t think I can articulate what I think a “Christmas movie” is but, as people like to say, “I know it when I see it!”

For what it’s worth, and in no particular order, here are a bunch of movies I think of as Christmas movies:

(I obviously have a fondness for older Christmas films. No surprise there.)

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