7 Movies That Aren’t Really Christmas (But We Watch Them Anyway)

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s the time of year for holiday entertainment and there’s certainly no shortage of it. There are countless Christmas specials across television and movies, some new and some classic, for people to take in while spend time with family and friends. Nearly every genre is represented as people get in the holiday spirit making it truly the best time of year.

But even though there are plenty of genuine Christmas movies that people can watch, there are also movies that we turn to every year that may not necessarily fit neatly into the “Christmas movie” category. These are movies that are either disputed in terms of their Christmas movie status or are just movies that happen to be films that we turn to every year because of their setting or because they are broadcast each season and have become enduring traditions. Whatever the reason, these movies are as much a part of the holiday experience as A Christmas Carol and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

7) Batman Returns

Batman Returns is one of those movies that gets a lot of debate as to whether it is a Christmas movie or not and there are some compelling points in favor it actually being a holiday film — while the film was actually released in theaters in June 1992, it’s set at the holidays and features many themes often seen in more traditional Christmas offerings, just in a more realistic and slightly more grim way. Perhaps it’s for that reason that Batman Returns has become a holiday tradition for many fans each year.

Batman Returns follows Michael Keaton’s Batman as he takes on the corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) as well as the crime boss Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Danny DeVito) who are making moves for power in Gotham that threaten the entire city all while a new player, Shreck’s former secretary Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is seeking revenge against Shreck and emerges as a new threat, Catwoman. The film has politics, corruption, and complex trauma, all set against a semi-festive holiday backdrop — or at least as festive as Gotham City gets.

6) Carol

Set in 1950s New York City, Carol stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, and Kyle Chandler and tells the story of a forbidden love affair between an aspiring photographer (Mara) and an older woman going through a divorce (Blanchett).  The film is decidedly not a Christmas movie — the film’s story actually spans several months as the complicated romance between Therese (Mara) and Carol (Blanchett) unfolds. However, the film starts during the Christmas season and it certainly sets a tone, particularly since when we meet Therese she’s working in a department store in the city.

Carol is a visually gorgeous film throughout, but the scenes that are set during the holiday season particular capture the season. There’s a sense of both the nostalgia of the holiday as shown through this 1950s lens and also something somber about the time of year that makes it easy to see why people would put this as a holiday movie.

5) The Wizard of Oz

For a lot of people, The Wizard of Oz is a holiday movie but pretty much everyone can agree that the 1939 classic film isn’t actually a true Christmas movie. After all, there’s no real Christmas theme or iconography in The Wizard of Oz and the movie didn’t open in theaters around the holiday originally either. Instead, the reason so many people associate The Wizard of Oz with the holidays is because of television broadcast schedules. When the movie made its broadcast television return in 1959 after three years of being off the air, CBS aired the movie in December — and did so until 1962. After another switch to a spring broadcast cycle that would last until the 1990s, 1999 saw the movie shift back to being broadcast around Thanksgiving and in the days leading up to Christmas.

This broadcast schedule has led The Wizard of Oz to become a holiday movie for a lot of people. It’s something that reliably airs on television every year during the season and has become a tradition. It’s not exactly a true Christmas movie, but it’s become a Christmas tradition and that’s honestly good enough.

4) Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 is a Christmas movie. It’s set at Christmas, it has Christmas themes, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has even confirmed that the movie is, in fact, a Christmas movie even though it came out in theaters during the summer. And we agree. It’s got a lot of similarities to A Christmas Carol — Tony is going through some things and is confronted with aspects of his past that help him to change his ways and become a better person going forward. It just happens to be a superhero version of it.

Of course, as with most films that aren’t very overtly Christmas-themed and don’t have a very specific holiday story or Santa and such, there are going to be those that counter argue that the film’s May 2013 release date and the fact that the story could have taken place at any time of the year make it anything but a Christmas story, but really — it’s a Christmas story and for many, it’s a holiday must-watch.

3) The Lord of the Rings trilogy

There are few times of the year that present a more perfect opportunity to sit down and watch the entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy than the holidays — and that’s probably why for many, the films have collectively become “Christmas movies”. There is absolutely nothing about the films that is particularly holiday themed. The films are just truly incredible adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic fantasy novels. But they are great movies to sit down and watch with family and friends.

It probably helps that the movies are frequently aired as part of a movie marathon during the holiday season. It’s not unusual to find all of The Lord of the Rings movies airing back-to-back at various points in time starting around Thanksgiving. That broadcast proximity to Christmas has gone a long way towards cementing the trilogy as an enduring holiday tradition and it’s one we certainly approve of.

2) Harry Potter

In the same vein as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter movies have also become a holiday tradition for many. With the Harry Potter films, it is a little bit different — some of the movies do have moments within them that are set around the Christmas holiday, but not enough to actually make the movies true “Christmas movies” in the purest sense. However, watching the movies during the holiday season due to the available time to do so and being surrounded by family and friends has helped cement the franchise as holiday content. And, like The Lord of the Rings, the movies are often aired extensively during the holiday season as well.

1) Die Hard

Look, we couldn’t have this list without Die Hard being on it. If we’re being honest, Die Hard is the reason lists like this exist in the first place as it is the ultimate example of a “Christmas” movie that may or may not actually be a holiday film, depending on where you fall in the debate. If you’re one of the people that see John McClane’s effort to visit his estranged wife during a Christmas Eve party go awry thanks to terrorists as an action-packed holiday tale, this movie is naturally going to be one you turn to each season. If you’re someone who thinks it’s just a movie that happens to be set during the holidays, there’s a good chance you watch it during Christmas anyway just because it gets aired during that time frame quite a bit. Either way, you can’t lose.

Of course, if you want to take things a little further there’s another Die Hard film that you can watch during the holiday season that might actually be more of a “Christmas movie” than Die Hard is. There are those that claim Die Hard 2 is very clearly a Christmas movie in its own right and goes just a bit further to validate the first film as a holiday movie, too. Maybe you should add that to the list this year, too.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

7 More Movies From the 1990s You Forgot Were Awesome