Best Christmas films

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you set them at a different time of the year, or included a holiday but selected a different one, and the movie doesn't work, it's a Christmas movie.

By that definition, there are almost no Christmas movies.

Miracle on 34th Street is just a movie about whether or not the courts recognize a possibly mentally ill man's claim to be a beloved fictional character. The movie would be functionally the same if it was about the Easter Bunny, not Santa Claus.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

TV Executive was the fill in for business owner Scrooge. What is today's equivalent? Tech mogul?

Tech bro would work very well. They tend to love to monologue about why Randian selfishness is actually the good and moral choice.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

it’s unfair that Potter gets away with stealing the money

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Both can be upgraded if you consider dysfunctional feuding to be part of the spirit of the season.

Man, it's thematically appropriate, but watching the "Fishes" episode of The Bear -- named after the Feast of Seven Fishes, which is a big Christmas ritual for Italian American families -- would be 100% a Christmas episode, but what a way to ruin the holidays, possibly forever.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

By that definition, there are almost no Christmas movies.

Miracle on 34th Street is just a movie about whether or not the courts recognize a possibly mentally ill man's claim to be a beloved fictional character. The movie would be functionally the same if it was about the Easter Bunny, not Santa Claus.

Yep, I buy that. M34 isn't a Christmas movie; it's simply a movie set at Christmas.

 

[CleverNickName]

*The Nightmare, surely?
[/internet pedant]

Woops, right you are! I shall amend my erroneous promulgation forthwith.

 

[trappedslider]

On another note, I showed my oldest kid the trailer to Scrooged and it did nothing for him. (I had been interested in showing the movie to my kids over the holidays.) "Evil network executive" just doesn't work as a hook for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I suspect. It's like "evil buggy whip manufacturer" as far as dated archetypes go.

Now i want an one shot with the bbeg being a "evil buggy whip manufacturer"

 

[CleverNickName]

In order for any movie to be A Christmas Movie^TM the following criteria must be met.

1. Falling snow must appear in at least one scene.

2. Someone must say the phrase "Merry Christmas" at least once.

3. At some point in the movie, something has to be on fire.

If a film lacks any of these three things, it's probably not a Christmas movie.

 

[trappedslider]

 

[jian]

By that definition, there are almost no Christmas movies.

Miracle on 34th Street is just a movie about whether or not the courts recognize a possibly mentally ill man's claim to be a beloved fictional character. The movie would be functionally the same if it was about the Easter Bunny, not Santa Claus.

I would disagree about Miracle on 34th St - it’s important that Kringle claims to be Santa Claus, because in the US at least there are few folkloric characters with quite the commercial penetration and cultural clout that Santa has. He couldn’t claim to be the Easter Bunny because he’s not a rabbit, and there’s just not as much cultural and commercial baggage associated with the character.

But for many other Christmas films, yes, this is a test worth applying: could the film be set at another time or about another holiday and make little difference to the themes? Die Hard, yes; Elf, no; A Christmas Carol, no; Trading Places, yes; Home Alone, yes. In my opinion.