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Do They Know It’s A Christmas Film?

A look at some notable movies that not everyone considers to be traditional Christmas viewing

Barnaby Page
Frame Rated
Published in
7 min readDec 22, 2024

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LLet’s address the primary question first: is Die Hard (1988) a Christmas film? This is a long-standing and heated debate, one I have no intention of entering. Regardless of my answer, half of you will be displeased; and it is, after all, supposed to be the season of goodwill to all men, of sweet little robins perched on snowy boughs and jolly elves crafting handmade wooden toys, which are, of course, what all today’s children truly desire for Christmas.

It’s also the season of homicidal cross-dressers and megalomaniac newspaper proprietors. For if Die Hard qualifies as a Christmas movie, then I’d argue that numerous other unexpected titles fall into the same category, despite an often complete absence of glitter and baubles.

One of these is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), so distinctly un-Christmassy in tone that almost nobody recalls that its story commences in mid-December. Moreover, although the film’s internal timeline isn’t entirely explicit, the murder of Arbogast (Martin Balsam) on the stairs in the Bates house and the subsequent discovery by Lila (Vera Miles) and Sam (John Gavin) of a sinister secret in the fruit cellar must occur…

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Barnaby Page
Barnaby Page

Written by Barnaby Page

Barnaby is a journalist based in Suffolk, UK. By day he covers science and public policy; by night, film and classical music. He has also been a cinema manager.

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