Is “Die Hard” a Christmas Movie?

And what makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie?

Without question, Die Hard is one of the greatest and most iconic action movies ever. But a debate that has spanned decades—among *ahem* diehard fans and neutrals—is whether or not it’s a Christmas movie.

Its star Bruce Willis and its director John McTiernan even disagree. The former claimed it's a “Goddamn Bruce Willis” movie, while the latter argued that since the public has adopted it as a Christmas movie, it has hence turned into one.

Even other Christmas movies recognize it as a peer. In Love Hard (2021), Natalie ranks it as her favorite Yuletide flick. In I Believe in Santa (2022), Tom’s law firm is called “Bailey, Potter and McClane,” which not only name-checks Willis’s character John McClane, but also places him right alongside two of the most supreme Christmas movie characters of all time, George Bailey and Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life.

Intensifying the debate, streaming services often include it in their holiday movie carousels, which could signal industry-wide recognition of its place in the Christmas genre.

The supporters argue Die Hard’s Yuletide setting and use of Christmas motifs confirm that it’s a Christmas movie, while the opponents insist it’s too violent.

The reality is that both sides' logic is wrong because they’re not evaluating the movie correctly.

Before we proceed, an important note: The intention of this piece is only to offer a perspective based purely on technicalities. Ultimately, whatever you and your family decide to watch for Christmas is up to you and your family. If you deem Die Hard a Christmas movie, cool. If you don’t, fine.

It would be inaccurate to say that any movie set at Christmastime is a Christmas movie. Plenty of movies take place at or around Christmas but are not widely considered Christmas movies, like Trading Places (1983), Gremlins (1984), Batman Forever (1995), The Box (2009), and Iron Man 3 (2013). Even mob epics like The Godfather (1972) and GoodFellas (1990) have pivotal scenes set around Christmas.

It would also be a mistake to say that Christmas movies must impart heartwarming morals about community, family, and love. Countless violent Christmas movies would beg to differ including Black Christmas (1974, 2006), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), Santa’s Slay (2005), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), Krampus (2015), Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022), Violent Night (2022), and many others.

To be considered a Christmas movie, Christmas must be an intrinsic part of the story. It can’t be squeezed in as a sort of narrative flavoring.

To tell if a movie is a proper Christmas movie, remove all Christmas themes, symbols, and references. This includes Christmas décor, mistletoe, fake Santas, real Santas, Christmas music, cozy Christmas knitwear, ugly Christmas knitwear, Christmas spirit, Christmas ghosts, Christmas gifts, everything.

If the story falls apart, then it is a Christmas movie. If it still makes sense—if it holds up as a cohesive narrative—it is not a Christmas movie.

Let’s run through some examples.

Elf

Removing Buddy the Elf, Santa, the North Pole, Gimbels, etc., leaves you with a movie about a guy who works in publishing and hates his family. There is no story there, so Elf is a Christmas movie.

A Christmas Carol

Scrubbing Christmas from A Christmas Carol leaves you with a movie called A Carol about an angry, rich man who learns zero lessons about compassion. A Christmas Carol is a Christmas movie.

Little Women (any of them)

While some scenes occur around Christmas, taking away their seasonality would do negligible damage to the plot, which covers many years in the March sisters’ lives. Little Women is not a Christmas movie.

It’s a Wonderful Life

Indeed, this movie has little to do with Christmas until the third act. The problem is that scrapping those final moments would undo everything that came before it. There would be no emotional payoff for George Bailey’s lifetime of altruism, no imparted moral about the power of selflessness, no warm holiday feeling. Ransacking it of all Christmas spirit would result in its destruction. It’s a Wonderful Life is, without a doubt, a Christmas movie.

Die Hard follows NYPD cop John McClane, who travels to L.A. on Christmas Eve to attend a holiday party at the headquarters of his estranged wife’s employer. While he’s upstairs getting dressed, a group of heavily armed European terrorists seizes the building and takes everyone hostage. McClane then sneaks around the high-rise and picks off the gunmen one by one.

If we remove all Christmas themes, symbols, and references from the story, here is what would happen:

The movie would no longer take place on Christmas Eve. (It would instead happen on any other wintery day.) All the Christmas trees, string lights, decorations, and music— including the ones the characters hum to themselves—would be wiped out, as well as any reference to Ebenezer Scrooge or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

The giant teddy bear McClane brought, presumably as a gift for his daughter, would also be gone.

The HO-HO-HO McClane scrawls on that terrorist's sweatshirt would vanish (it would just read NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN), as would the Santa hat he tops the dead guy’s head with.

That “Christmas miracle” of the FBI showing up and cutting power to the building would become just a regular “miracle.” (Although, the FBI responding to a terrorist situation is not a miracle…)

Removing all these elements would certainly change the flavor of the movie, but it would not dramatically alter the plot.

You’d still have a rock-solid story about a guy tiptoeing barefoot around an L.A. high-rise, pummeling bad guys, and trying to save his marriage. You’d still have Bruce Willis’s charisma and relatability, Alan Rickman’s mesmerizing villainy, the incredible action set pieces, its patient yet breakneck pacing, its incisive critique of authority, the David vs. Goliath battle between McClane and Gruber—everything that Die Hard is and has been applauded for.

There may be a question or two about some minor details, like why the streets are so empty and why it takes the police so long to respond, but most if not all action movies ask you to suspend some belief in service to a fun ride. It just may not be as neatly *ahem* wrapped together with a bow.

In Die Hard, Christmas serves as a backdrop—a piece of the setting that sprinkles pretty lights here and there—but it doesn't drive the story in any meaningful way.

For that reason, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.

With all that said, Die Hard is more of a Christmas movie than Love Actually. I’ll leave you with that piping hot take without elaborating further. Or at least until next year.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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One final note: After I wrote this, I stumbled on a piece by Kristen Marie for That Old Picture Show that used the same method to evaluate Die Hard, but arrived at the opposite conclusion. Her case is reasonably strong and I suggest you check it out.