Die Hard: is it a Christmas movie?

Until last night, I had never seen Die Hard. 

It’s been around since 1988, so I knew the important things about it:

• Bruce Willis says “yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker.” Everyone knows that.

• It gave us the gift of Alan Rickman. Bless you, Die Hard.

• John McClane is the good guy and Hans Gruber is the bad guy.

• Hans Gruber falls off a tower.

• John McClane probably lives because there are a bajillion sequels.

• People seem to be divided over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

I am not a big fan of action movies, but I was really excited to finally watch Die Hard. It’s a pillar of American cinema, after all. My dad has said to me (more than once) that he failed as a parent because I moved out of his house before watching Die Hard. And then still didn’t watch it for another 18 years.

I actually really liked Die Hard. Going in blind (except knowing the very general way in which it ends) was really fun. I didn’t know Bruce Willis had his shoes off the whole time, and there were plenty of truly hilarious one-liners. There were lots of surprise 80s celebrity sightings - Carl Winslow from Family Matters, the jerk principal (“mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns”) from The Breakfast Club, and a couple of passing faces from The Goonies. It was great.

To the question at hand: is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

My initial reaction is to say yes. It is set at Christmas time, and there are elements of Christmas that are present in the plot (“now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho”). Question answered.

But then, while up during the wee hours of the morning with seven-week-old-Robin, I thought more about it. This is when I do my best thinking: when you’re sleep deprived enough to be on the edge of delirium but you’re not there yet so your thoughts are just flexible enough but not fully off the charts. 

Anyway, I got to thinking about what makes every other Christmas movie a Christmas movie. My personal favorites are the likes of Christmas Vacation, Home Alone I and II, The Muppet Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, and Mickey’s Christmas Carol. 

They all take place at Christmas.

Die Hard does that.

They all have happy endings.

Unless you’re Hans Gruber, Die Hard does that.

Christmas is a central part of the plot - almost like another character.

Hmm. Nope. Die Hard could be set at any time of the year.

I would not watch any of these Christmas movies any other time of the year.

No, I would not. But I would not have a problem watching Die Hard in July.

So I can’t in good conscience lump Die Hard in with all your run-of-the mill Christmas movies. It is, but it isn’t. I have a rule that Christmas movies should only be watched during December, and then they can fuck right off. But I would not apply that to Die Hard. I would also not have a problem watching it as a Christmas movie.

So I feel I can’t give a good answer to the “Christmas movie or not” debate. 

What do you think?