What to Watch: Unconventional Christmas Films

Hey everyone! So I’ve decided to be super generous and give you all presents! Well one for all to enjoy 🙂 It’s coming a little bit early, but that’s because I couldn’t wait until Sunday! And it might just save you from having to watch A Christmas Story  on loop for 24 hours straight… so its practical.

So you know how there’s the usual Christmas films: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, A Christmas Story, etc… yeah? You know what I’m talking about right? Well what if I told you there were some films that were dubbed “Christmas movies” but have nothing really to do with Christmas at all!

GASP!?! IKR!

Well my gift to you for this wonderful holiday season is in two parts: A. you get to hear/see my lovely voice twice in one week, and B. A list of films that can be considered Christmas movies but not in the conventional sense. Enjoy!

If anything, this list will give you something to debate with the relatives that you only see once or twice a year. Beats “How’s school?” or “When are you getting married?”right?

Die Hard

Once you look past the violence and whatnot, you can see that this movie is rooted in the Christmas spirit- it begins with a festive Christmas party. Everyone loves parties. And John McClane wants to make it up to his wife and kids for the holiday, and not only that, but the bulk of the action takes place of Christmas. Think about it, what other day in winter would a building be nearly deserted? And in the end all is well with LA and the family. And I do have to mention the “ho ho ho” machine gun corpse thing. But for the most part, it can be argued that Die Hard  is a Christmas movie.

Gremlins

Okay, to be honest this movie scared the crap out of me as a child. But that doesn’t diminish it’s Christmas-y qualities. Gizmo was a Christmas gift to little Billy. He’s freaking adorable. But was isn’t adorable are the reptilian gremlins when sing Christmas carols or Kate’s monologue about why she hates Christmas. It isn’t as much creepy as that you feel bad for her… And poor Gizmo! That’s when he finds out Santa doesn’t exist.

Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon

If you’ve paid any attention to pop culture, you’ll notice that many of the films that Shane Black is on board with- are set at Christmas time. He wrote films like Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Lethal Weapon and they are all set around the holidays. Why though?

He explains that his co-screenwriter Drew Pearce had the idea that when you have a story that “involves an entire universe of characters, one way to unite them is to have them all undergo a common experience. There’s something at Christmas that unites everybody and it already sets a stage within the stage, that wherever you are, you’re experiencing this world together. I think that also there’s something just pleasing about it to me.” Black went on to explain how loneliness is heightened at this time and that “ghosts of christmas’ past” tend to come back into our lives.

Edward Scissorhands

This whole story is an elderly woman telling her granddaughter about where snow comes from. In that story, she talks about Edward coming into his own with his ice sculptures and how he made it snow. And love, you can’t forget the love story. To me this goes hand in hand with The Nightmare before Christmas, it’s a good multi-holiday movie: Halloween and Christmas!

Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter films

These have really nothing at all to do with Christmas but they always have marathons at this time of year. Yes there’s snow and house elves and men with white beards but that guy isn’t Santa. Harry Potter does have Christmas scenes throughout the series but not enough to make it a “Christmas movie.” Not going to lie though, I’ll still marathon both of these- it’s tradition now!

Sources: slashfilms, IMDb

 

What are you watching?