Christmas is a time that normally brings people together, apart from the traditional arguments that pop up every year, with several just about Christmas movies. Christmas marks a special time of the year for everybody, regardless of faith. As the year winds down and people look back at the year they’ve had, while also looking forward to what comes next, it marks an important moment in many different ways.
It’s also a time when schools and work wind down and families spend more time together. While getting together with family can be great, the extra time can lead to arguments as everyone is stuck together in a confined space. Christmas food, Christmas movies, and family traditions all add to the magic of the season, but they can also bring up age-old traditional arguments that are characteristic of the holidays. From favorite Christmas movies, to whether or not a movie even counts as a Christmas movie, there’s a lot to debate during the holiday season.
10 Tim Burton Gets Too Much Credit For Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Nightmare Before Christmas is the perfect movie to watch between Halloween and Christmas thanks to the crossover between the holidays in the movie. While the movie is a widely loved and highly regarded film, many people call it Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, which gives the illusion that Burton was heavily involved with the project. While it’s true that the movie possesses many of the signature elements from Burton’s other films, Burton didn’t direct the movie. He didn’t even adapt the script for the film. However, the original concept for the story is adapted from a three-page poem with the same title that Burton wrote early in his career.
Over the years, Burton worked on other projects like Beetlejuice and Batman, but it wasn’t until years after he wrote the poem that it began to be considered for a movie. The film rights belonged to Disney as Burton previously worked there, but it wasn’t until years later that the movie was put into production with Henry Selick as the director. Due to other filming commitments, Burton was unable to direct the movie. Still, he did work with Danny Elfman on developing some music and building on the earlier idea, before handing the scripts over to be adapted and finished.
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9 The Polar Express Is Weird
The Polar Express (2004)
Often discussed for the uncanny valley animation style, The Polar Express is one of the most unusual Christmas movies of the last few decades. The movie, which stars Tom Hanks in several roles with his likeness appearing throughout, follows a young boy and dozens of characters who are never named. The visual style is impressive for how realistic it looks, but it also feels eerie and creepy. In addition, the story takes some dark and disturbing turns with ominous characters and truly intense scenes that make viewers question whether or not it was intended for children at all.
8 Everyone In Love Actually Is Awful
Love Actually (2003)
One of the most highly regarded Christmas romantic comedies of all time, Love Actually is often a part of many people’s essential viewing over the holidays. However, despite the multiple storylines following a series of love stories and the cute British accents, the movie features a lot of people that actually kind of suck. A lot of comments regarding women being overweight, particularly Natalie, are dropped throughout. Most of the female characters barely have a voice and are essentially used to push different plot devices along, like with Jamie’s (Colin Firth) infatuation with a largely silent housekeeper.
Mark (Andrew Lincoln) professes his love for Juliet with large cards and some Christmas music, but that’s his best friend’s new wife. She seems interested though, considering she kisses him. Alan Rickman’s character, Harry, has an affair and he and his wife choose to unhappily stay together, and everyone generally chooses to do morally questionable and awful things.
7 Die Hard Is Not A Christmas Movie
Die Hard (1988)
At the very least, a Christmas movie should have a plot that relies on the time of the story being set at Christmas. This can be a major part, like with movies that race to save Christmas and Santa, or a fairly minor part, such as a family getting together for the holiday, exchanging gifts, etc., but it should at least be a necessary part of the story. By that definition, Die Hard does not make the cut. The film’s true nature as a Christmas movie has been hotly debated ever since it was released, but aside from the movie happening to occur on Christmas Eve, nothing else requires that to be a part of the movie.
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The movie is about a man who travels to visit his estranged wife in the hopes of reconciling and getting back together. That doesn’t rely on the time being Christmas. Of course, it makes sense that he’s thinking about loved ones and making up at the end of the year, but it could have just as easily been made with the date being New Year’s Eve, or her birthday, or literally any time. The movie sprinkles in some references and decorations to the season, but the action thriller movie is definitively not a Christmas movie. It’s a movie that happens to take place at Christmas.
6 It’s A Wonderful Life Let the Villain Get Away
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
It’s A Wonderful Life is a timeless Christmas movie that recounts the heartwarming tale of George Bailey, a man who selflessly puts others first until it brings him to his breaking point. As the movie explores George’s life and influence over his town and beyond, he struggles to stay on top of his family’s business and provide for his loved ones, but he goes above and beyond to share what he has and protect others. The movie also establishes a clear villain in a rival bank owner, Henry Potter, who undermines and belittles Bailey and seeks to selfishly accumulate wealth at the expense of others’ well-being.
Potter even steals $8,000 from Bailey’s uncle, who misplaced the money and refuses to help Bailey when he realizes what happened. Heartwarming as the film’s conclusion may be, Potter gets away with his terrible misdeeds and likely continues to cause trouble for the Baileys and the rest of the town. So, while Bailey gets to experience an outpouring of love from his community to help him in a time of crisis, Potter is still likely to overtake him considering his vast wealth, and continue to make things difficult for Bailey.
5 The Muppet Christmas Carol Is The Best Christmas Carol
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been adapted dozens of times in numerous formats. The story which tells the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge. The miserly old man has a particular displeasure with Christmastime and actively spreads negative feelings through his horrible ways. The Muppet Christmas Carol is an excellent adaptation that manages to convey a serious message while keeping the visuals appropriate for viewers of all ages. Many adaptations lean into a more haunting and terrifying adaptation, either intentionally or by accident, due to the darker nature of the story.
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4 The Santa Clause Is Super Dark
The Santa Clause (1994)
Within the first 20 minutes, The Santa Clause kills the jolly old man in the big red suit. When Scott Calvin hears some strange noises coming from his roof, he decides to investigate. In doing so, he catches the man standing atop his home off guard and causes him to tragically slip and fall from the roof. After this, Scott watches as Santa slowly fades away and disappears. When Scott turns up at the North Pole, none of the elves seem in any way upset about the “other Santa” passing away and being replaced. The Elves are cold and callous and while the movie has lighter moments, the premise is dark.
3 Kevin McCallister Is A Villain In Home Alone
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone is another classic Christmas movie starring a young and adorable Macauley Culkin as the ingenious kid who is left home alone on Christmas Eve. Kevin McCallister is simply a child who is left to fend for himself when his family leaves for the holidays, and unfortunately, some opportunistic criminals decide to break in and steal from the family home. However, what Kevin does in response is a lot more than self-defense.
Kevin seriously maims and injures the potential home invaders throughout the film, setting up elaborate traps. Fair, the criminals should have fled after realizing the home was occupied and booby-trapped, but if anything, that speaks to their lack of intelligence, while Kevin takes advantage and abuses people who are less intelligent than himself. At a bare minimum, everyone sucks here, and Kevin inflicts cruel and unusual punishment on some minor criminals who could have easily been dealt with by the police, or shooed away by a neighbor.
2 Christmas Horror Movies Are Too Silly To Be Scary
Various Christmas Horror Movies
The very premise of a Christmas horror movie often revolves around terrible killers or supernatural beings dressed in full Santa garb terrorizing innocent victims. While subversion often makes a horror movie all the more impressive and scary, seeing bad guys shout “Ho Ho Ho” in a big red suit while wielding an axe crosses over into being ridiculous nine times out of ten. Not every Christmas horror movie is bad, but more often than not, they straddle the line between being comedy-based horrors rather than truly terrifying.
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1 Buddy The Elf Never Belonged In The North Pole
Elf (2003)
Elf is another beloved Christmas movie that became an instant classic when it was first released in 2003. However, while the movie has a lot worth praising, the idea that Buddy the Elf was being raised as an Elf is completely ridiculous. Santa accidentally brings a small human child back to the North Pole from an orphanage, and instead of returning the child to where he found him, or placing him back with his parents as he easily could have done, he decides to let an elf adopt the child.
Buddy, a human, grows much larger than the others, never manages to fit in metaphorically or physically to the purpose-built spaces, and frequently causes damage and injury to the actual elves he lives with. It would have been kinder for Santa to bring the baby back where he belonged, or better yet, place him in a loving home where people were desperately hoping for a child. Santa has the magic to be able to see who’s naughty and nice, and the gifts that people most desire, so it doesn’t make sense to place Buddy in a home where he could never truly fit in, while also endangering his adopted family.
