As the holiday season rolls around, old debates are often brought up. Whether it be about whether Christmas music is annoying or awesome, or politics at the holiday table, one recurring argument has to do with the Christmas movie. Put simply, a Christmas movie is a movie that has to do with Christmas. However, people have been viciously divided about the validity of several movies as “Christmas movies”. In this article, I will be ranking each movie out of 5 snowflakes, 5 being the most “Christmasy” and 0 being the least.

Die Hard: 

0/5 Snowflakes 

Die Hard is just not a Christmas movie. Really, the only justification for it being a Christmas movie is that it takes place on Christmas. However, I believe that for a movie to truly be a Christmas movie, the story has to revolve around Christmas in some way. In Die Hard, the story revolves around German terrorists (decidedly not Christmas). The star of the movie himself is confident in his conviction that it is not a Christmas movie, but rather it is a “Bruce Willis Movie” (the Beacon makes no comment on this assertion).

The Nightmare Before Christmas

3/5 Snowflakes

The Nightmare Before Christmas has Christmas in the title, which is worth at least one snowflake. In all seriousness though, the story does involve Christmas pretty heavily, as the main character Jack Skellington wants to take over Christmas Town so he can become Santa Clause. Many will argue that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie, and with good reason. The movie begins in Halloween Town and many of its main characters are from Halloween Town. Plus, the most famous song from the movie is called “This is Halloween”. I say the two categories are not mutually exclusive. Why can’t The Nightmare Before Christmas be enjoyed as a hallmark (get it) of both holiday seasons? 

Gremlins

1/5 Snowflakes

Gremlins is a classic comfort movie, but many argue about its validity as a Christmas movie. The bulk of the story does take place on Christmas, and the catalyst of the story is Christmas related – Billy receives the first mogwai as a Christmas gift. However, much like die Hard, the plot of the story doesn’t revolve around Christmas but rather preventing these gremlins from attacking and killing people (which is not super in the Christmas spirit if you ask me).