The Christmas Movie Test
This year I watched Die Hard for the first time, 32 years after it was made, significantly because of the debate over whether or not it’s a Christmas movie.
Before I share where I landed on this vote, I want to question what is meant by “a Christmas movie.”
For some, Christmas is a religious holiday, a celebration of the birth of Christ. Christmas is marked by going to church, setting up nativity scenes, celebrating this momentous occasion. Die Hard is many things, but it could not be described as religious. Or even celebratory.
For others, Christmas is all about children. It seems for them, Christmas is nothing without the belief in Santa and the focus on presents. Die Hard is most definitely not a film made for children, and I would imagine that this crowd is a resounding “no.”
Some people see Christmas primarily as time off, a vacation away from work. Die Hard could work for these folks if they generally like action films, although its hold on the Christmas slot would seem fairly tenuous, more of a story setting device than anything. I could imagine a new release easily bumping it off the marquee.
Still others are busier than ever at Christmas time, working retail or emergency rooms or package delivery or food service. What time they have off may or may not be spent rewatching a movie and I couldn’t speak to whether or not Die Hard would fit the bill. It’s distracting, sure, but something with more laughs might be preferable.
For me, what has always mattered most about Christmas is connecting with friends and family. I see healing of disconnections between people as the running theme of the best Christmas movies. Past wounds heal. Family members reunite. Consumerism is replaced by generosity. Someone understands that love is the true meaning of Christmas.
Using this measure, Die Hard fits the bill, and is going into my Christmas rotation.
Sometimes it takes the ghost of an old business partner haunting your night with his spirit friends. Sometimes you need to see your world rewritten without you in it. And sometimes you need to single-handedly take down a gang of international thieves and blow up part of a building while TV cameras are rolling. We all learn in different ways.
In the end, it’s all about the true meaning of Christmas. We all need to reach out to those we love and tell them how we feel.