Now that December has rolled around the holiday season is in full swing. Which means people are busting out the decade old Christmas DVDs and settling down on their couch to watch iconic Christmas movies such as “Home Alone” or “A Christmas Story”. But then there are the more contraversial choices. Movies that walk a thin line between actual Christmas movies or movies that were just released during the holiday season. These movies spark the age old debate of what qualifies as a Christmas movie?
Every month, student journalists at the CSArtisan get together and have a news meeting. We go over the news of the month, upcoming holidays, etc. all to figure out what’s gonna be our next headlining stories for the next issue. When I brought up this story I got some quizzical looks about what this article would be about. But when I brought up Die Hard as an example of a “Christmas Movie”… The whole room erupted into argument!
“It’s not a Christmas movie!” exclaimed our journalist M.J., “It just happens to take place on Christmas Day the plot doesn’t revolve around Christmas!” Though the beginning of the movie centers around Bruce Willis going to L.A. for his kid’s Christmas and getting roped up in his ex-wife’s office Christmas party, once the terrorist plot starts up you completely forget the Christmas parts of the movie.
Sidney, our graphic designer, had a different opinion, “It’s a Christmas movie because the idea surrounding it is that it’s set during Christmas so it should be regarded as a Christmas movie,”
And, as said previously, the plot does get kicked into motion by the terrorists hijacking the office Christmas party. Also, a lot of the trailers and promos about Die Hard really double down on the fact Die Hard is a Christmas movie I left the meeting feeling optimistic about this article. If even a throwaway mention of Die Hard sparked so much debate, I wondered what students thought of other infamous not-so-Christmas movies. So I set up a google form, to gauge what people classified as a Christmas movie. What I was expecting when sending out the Google form was maybe some lukewarm takes about Die Hard or the Nightmare Before Christmas. What I didn’t expect was people saying HOME ALONE (technically) ISN’T A CHRISTMAS MOVIE.
“There’s a difference between a story set in Christmas and a Christmas story,” says Alex the Christmas heretic,
Sure, movies like Home Alone take place during Christmas, and are the reason for events to happen, they are not part of the real story. Christmas stories are about Christmas itself, and the values we associate with the holidays like family connection, thoughtfulness and giving. Therefore, movies set during Christmas but with no message or story connecting to Christmas values doesn’t fall under ‘A Christmas Story’ movie.”
Despite how controversal Alex’s opinion is, I can see his point. Once the kid is left behind in house the Christmas aspect of the movie takes a backseat outside of Kevin’s clever traps using Christmas items. But even with the Christmas themed trappings he was just using what he could find around the house! I’d say the one thing against Alex’s argument is that the plot is set in motion by the family Christmas trip to France. If the family wasn’t going to France they probably would’ve waited out the power outage and had a regular Christmas at home.
The other thing I realized is how much this Home Alone argument echoed arguments about Die Hard. Both movies are centered around Christmas at the very beginning and the very end but the middle of the movie has next to nothing to do with Christmas! This is why I wanted to center an article around this topic. It so interesting to see people go into spirited fights over Christmas movies like they bet their life on this movie. It’s also fun to fight over things they don’t really matter! Especially with the world we live in nowadays.
Conservatory Crossover