Lethal Weapon….
Good question.
My family talks about this with “Christmas” music. How many of the songs have nothing to do with Christmas but more with winter? Frosty the Snowman. Baby It’s Cold Outside. Jingle Bells. Etc.
Donovan’s Reef.
It has one of the funniest spoofs on a Christmas pageant ever done.
John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Caesar Romero, I have forgotten the female lead
Home Alone?...
Trading Places
It was just on the other night. They play the song My Favorite Things at Christmas because of the line "Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles," but the movie takes place in the summertime.
The networks used to play the movie in June, but now they play it during Christmas.
-PJ
Stalag 17
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
While You Were Sleeping
Gremlins
Non-Christmas movies that take place during Christmas:
Batman Returns
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Jumanji
The Thin Man
Gremlins
The Apartment
Iron Man 3
L.A. Confidential
Eyes Wide Shut
Meet Me in St. Louis
Star Trek: Generations
The Broadway play “Annie” was Christmas-based in the finale, but movie director John Huston changed the ending to the Independence Day and cut a couple of songs that were triputes to FDR and the New Deal.
“Patton” A lot of it happened in winter.
See how ridiculous all this is?
Catch Me If You Can.
“Die Hard” is not a Christmas movie? I beg to differ. Gathering around the corporate tower lit by rocket propelled grenades are my fondest memories. Who can forget throwing Hans Gruber off the top floor every year? This is what makes Christmas what it is.
And Die Hard is a Christmas Movie.
It is about a broken family coming together again, about good winning over the forces of greed and chaos, about a good man learning to forgive himself and about a media personality getting punched in the face.
Nothing says Peace on Earth like a purveyor of discord getting socked in the kisser.
If your idea of a Christmas movie is “Miracle on 34th Street” or “The Santa Claus” or “Jingle All The Way” then Capra wasn’t making a Christmas movie, but with a Christmas tree in the background and the action taking place on Christmas Eve, then sure, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a Christmas movie.
Capra and his scriptwriters had Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in mind and even got Lionel Barrymore who played Scrooge on the radio to be Old Man Potter, so it’s pretty fair to say that it was a Christmas movie, if perhaps an unconventional one in it’s day.
“White Christmas” also was shown this time of year. It was a remake of “Holiday Inn” made to be more Christmassy. It’s right there in the title. A lot of movies take their characters through a year, so there’s always a Christmas scene, but most of them aren’t Christmas pictures.
Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Its integral to the storyline. The movie story wouldn’t happen without it being Christmas.