The Pen in Hand Guide to Defining the Holiday Movie Genre: The “Die Hard” Question

Illustration by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

At this festive time of year, many of us observe the holiday traditions of Christmas like trimming the tree, singing carols, buying the presents, visiting Santa, and on and on and on. Part of our celebration of the holiday includes seeing the myriads of Christmas movies and television specials, which somehow seem to have been multiplying over the past decade or so. 

At one time, the Christmas canon consisted of film classics like Miracle on 34^th Street, White Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and It’s a Wonderful Life and television specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. In both content and thematically, there seemed to be little doubt that these had to be classified as Christmas features.

But then the powers that be in the film industry, in the true American tradition, decided to milk the yuletide cash cow. First came the remakes. The charming half-hour Grinch TV special was transformed into an overblown full-length extravaganza starring the overblown and tiresome Jim Carrey. Then it was remade again in 2018, this time into an animated feature starring the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch. The 1948 classic Miracle on 34^th Street also suffered a remake. God knows why; the charm and innocence of the original was completely lost—or ignored—in the 1994 retread. 

And then came the Hallmark Channel tsunami of syrupy romances decorated in the trappings of the yuletide season. Christmas Under Wraps, A Maple Valley Christmas, and—of course, A Royal Christmas. It’s been said that many of these movies recycle the same plot through different settings and actors, but it’s difficult to argue with success. According to BYU News Communications, “in 2021 Hallmark produced 41 new Christmas movies that attracted 85 million viewers.”  

Even if most of these productions are simply romances with all the trappings of Christmas movies, viewers eat them up. And this begs the question of how Christmas movies should be defined and classified. Purists might say that only the productions that address thematic elements as well as the outward trappings of the season should be considered Christmas movies. Productions like Miracle on 34^th Street, White Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and A Charlie Brown Christmas would fall into this category. Movies that happen to take place on or near December 25^th would not necessarily qualify. Gremlins, Reindeer Games, Trading Places, and L.A. Confidential are not Christmas movies. They all take place on or near the holiday but are not really about the Christmas spirit, goodwill towards men, or peace on Earth. Quite the contrary, in fact. Trading Places and Gremlins place the holiday in an ironic context, while L.A. Confidential’s Christmas Eve brawl is pure cynicism.

Love Actually is in somewhat of a gray area. While the film is mostly a series of romcom vignettes involving a cross-section of English society around Christmastime, the film still manages to touch upon yuletide themes of love, forgiveness, and hope. The same might be said of It’s a Wonderful Life. Although it may be blasphemous to suggest that this time-honored classic is not really a Christmas movie, the truth is that George Bailey’s crisis didn’t have to come on Christmas Eve. While the timing helped to emphasize the themes of selflessness, community, and family, the Christmas setting was not integral to the plot. But it did help pull the audience’s heartstrings—a lot. 

Which brings us to the biggest yuletide film controversy: the action classic Die Hard. For those of you who have somehow not heard of this classic thriller, NYPD cop Jon McClane (Bruce Willis) travels to L.A. to visit his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) at her workplace for her annual Christmas party. Little do they know, a terrorist group led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is planning an elaborate attack on the Nakatomi Plaza, the site of the party. McClane evades the original attack and wages a one-man campaign against Gruber and his band of European terrorists. Of course, after killing most of the terrorists—and destroying a good part of the building—McClane triumphs. Even though the film takes places at Christmas, it has no thematic relevance to the holiday, and only a peripheral attachment to the plot. There is no reason it could not have taken place on any other day of the year. The same is true of Die Hard II, which also takes place on Christmas. 

So, if the film didn’t have to take place on Christmas, why did the producers choose to set it at that time? To create a sense of irony, as the creators of Gremlins and L.A. Confidential (author James Ellroy) did? Or to create that extra layer of attractiveness—after all, everyone loves Christmas, right? 

Whatever the reason, the truth is that Christmas is—or should be—welcome anywhere in the movies. Whether it’s used as window dressing to spruce up a less than stellar screenplay or as a prop to elicit easy sympathy, Christmas is still Christmas, and will always be a reference (no matter how off-handed) to peace on Earth and goodwill towards men.

And there are as many ways to celebrate the holiday as there are individuals. So, if someone wants to soak in the aura of Christmas through the spiritual tribulations of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol or the bloody defeat of dastardly international terrorists in Die Hard, more power to them. 

As Charlie Brown says, the true meaning of Christmas may be hidden beneath the greed and commercialism of the season, but that’s his definition of the holiday. The true meaning of Christmas might be that it is so recognizable as a positive symbol in our culture that it is very nearly ubiquitous. And the truth is it never really gets old.