Posted on 12/13/2025 6:11:45 PM PST by DoodleBob
Some films are obviously Christmas movies, like Noelle. But that designation is not so clear cut for others. They may be set during the holiday season, and they may even touch upon Christmas themes, but does that mean they truly qualify in the traditional sense? …And the latest movie to take the stand in our great Christmas movie debate is hoping its season stock(ing) is about to go up. That’s right, it’s time to buy or sell holiday shares in Trading Places.
How much of Trading Places takes place at Christmastime?
Roughly 75% of Trading Places is set during Christmas time in chilly Philadelphia. (The other 25% runs from New Year’s Eve to January 2, with the final sequence on a tropical island taking place a during an unknown time in the near future.) The film is full of festive trees and other holiday decor, though not much Christmas music. A big important sequence also takes place during a Christmas Eve work party, which Dan Aykroyd’s Winthorpe crashes in the dirtiest Santa costume ever put on screen. It’s both delightful and disgusting.
…
Do any of the film’s major themes apply to Christmas?
Some very important themes have no connection with traditional Christmas ones. Those include racism, nature vs. nurture, and revenge. But some of the film’s biggest ideas certainly apply to the season. Greed, class structure, friendship, and kindness are all out of Charles Dickens’ holiday playbook.
(Excerpt) Read more at nerdist.com ...
If ANY movie is not centered around God becoming incarnate as the baby in the manger, that movie is NOT a Christmas movie.
It might be a movie featuring happenings on Dec. 25, but Jesus is the focus and meaning of Christmas.
Half of it is from me.
“Maybe I’ll go to the movies...”
Whereas "Die Hard" contains no disturbing images that might be inappropriate for children.
Regards,
The poster wasn’t comparing the movies, he was warning parents. Their both good movies. Get a grip.
Lovely to look at,
Delightful to hold.
But they’re made out of plastic,
And probably cold.
If so, my congrats to one of the best implant surgeons I have ever seen.
It features these SNL greats in their heyday.
Then it has Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, two old Vaudevillians who were both brilliant.
The plot is superb and the acting and lines are so memorable. They come up in conversation all the time: "MF, moi?" is one of the Eddie Murphy best ever lines.
Coleman and Beeks were beyond funny.
And the cameo of Bo Diddley ("in Philadelphia, it's fifty bucks.") Especially, was great.
This is one that certainly belongs in the Christmas Movie repertoire.
I came here to say that!
“By myself ...”
I'll never forget Dan Aykroyd, dressed as Santa, at rock bottom, stuffing a cold salmon between his shirt and his abdomen!
And the remark at the end about the two gorillas: "Oh let them have their fun."
Isn’t that the one where a homeless black guy outsmarts all the white people? Yeah, that was great. Now there’s only about a thousand movies just like it.
Mrs. BBB333 & I watch it as a Christmas and New Years film.
Very enjoyable!
It does take some liberties:
Crop reports ALWAYS are announced AFTER the markets are closed...
They are in ‘Philadelphia’ yet enter the Word Trade Center in NYC to do their market short...
The part about the gorillas HAD to be true though!
Al Franken was a writer for SNL ant the time...
I was in a movie with Jamie Lee Curtis (Amazing Grace and Chuck, it’s a horrible film BTW) — uncredited, yet the fellow that was signed up to deliver the line: “What are you going to do now, Chuck?” joined the Union, got paid scale and was cut out of the shot... the film editors put film of me onto the screen (I was an extra that day of filming). 100 people told me I was IN the film so I actually had to see it. I look GOOD! This makes me 2 steps away from Kevin Bacon (I’m 2 steps away via the Movie Animal House as well).
We have a Nakatomi Plaza Tabletop Christmas Countdown Calendar and Hans had fallen 14 floors as of today:
No.
It’s much more than that.
In fact, Valentine finds out that the Dukes consider him nothing more than a n-word prop by accident.
We DO have thousands of people embracing AND fomenting white victimology nowadays, though.
“No.
It’s much more than that.”
No it’s not. It’s exactly the brainwashing BS I said it was. Congratulations! You have been successfully brainwashed.
It is absolutely a Christmas movie. But it is not better than Die Hard. Damn good though. Remember it’s an exhibition not a competition, you can watch lots of non-traditional Christmas movies.
Both sewers obviously. To a westerner, no difference
So true.
My favorite Christmas movie is “Donovan’s Reef” with John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
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