# Are there any Christmas movies that take primarily on Christmas Day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119 "2018-11-26T18:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/1 "2018-11-26T18:49:05Z")
Thinking of all the movies I’ll be watching over the next month, I’ve realized that pretty much all of them barely feature Christmas Day, if at all. They’re all focused on the run up to Christmas, with maybe a brief final scene actually on Christmas morning. Films like Christmas Vacation, Elf, and Love Actually all end on Christmas Eve. A Christmas Carol and variations thereof technically take place on the 25th by happening after midnight, but the focus is still on the night be fore Christmas. Christmas Story is the only movie I can think that features a decent chunk of Christmas Day, but it’s still in the last third of the movie or so. Are there any movies out there (other than the churn of Hallmark “classics”) that focus on Christmas Day itself? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/2 "2018-11-26T18:58:47Z")
I think Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant and Loretta Young features Christmas day. It begins a few days before with Christmas shopping and putting up the tree. IIRC they go to church and visit a friend on Christmas Day. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/3 "2018-11-26T19:19:19Z")
The Reese Witherspoon/ Vince Vaughn comedy, _Four Christmases_ takes place entirely on one Christmas day, except for an epilogue (which is on New Year’s Day 53 weeks later) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/4 "2018-11-26T20:49:12Z")
[Reckless](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reckless_(1995_film)) is a weird dark comedy set on a series of Christmases. I can’t remember how much of the action actually takes place on Christmas day, but IIRC, the most arresting scene in the movie does. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/5 "2018-11-26T21:39:11Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > A Christmas Carol and variations thereof technically take place on the 25th by happening after midnight, but the focus is still on the night be fore Christmas. I dunno. _Scrooge_ mostly takes place on Christmas days, throughout history. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/6 "2018-11-27T00:13:44Z")
Heck, more of \* Miracle on 34th Street\* spends more time on Thanksgiving than it does on Christmas. _Arthur Christmas_, however, takes place almost entirely on Christmas Day. The opening is Santa delivering toys and it ends at dawn on Christmas. The first scene is before Christmas, and there’s an epilog, but that’s no more than 5 minutes of screen time. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/7 "2018-11-27T01:40:16Z")
Two black comedies come to mind: _The Ref_ (1994) and _The Ice Harvest_ (2005). As I recall, both start on the afternoon or evening of the 24th and depict various hi-jinks that run past midnight and well into the 25th, where they end. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/8 "2018-11-27T01:47:44Z")
Wasn’t there some glurgy thing called “Home for Christmas”, or the like, about a truck driver who just barely makes it home in time for Christmas with his family? I’d guess that that’d be mostly on the 25th. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/9 "2018-11-27T03:23:56Z")
The basic premise of “Home for Christmas” sounds similar to “The Homecoming” (maybe the movie you’re thinking of?) a TV movie which spawned “The Waltons” series. I think everything took place only on Christmas Day. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-christmas-movies-that-take-primarily-on-christmas-day/825119/10 "2018-11-27T03:34:53Z")
I found a surprising number of Groundhog’s Day looping movies set at Christmas when I was looking for the one I watched as a kid: [ul] [li]\*Christmas Every Day \*[/li][li]_12 Dates of Christmas_[/li][li]_Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas_ [Edit: apparently only one segment called “Stuck on Christmas”][/li][li]_Christmas Do-Over_[/li][li]_Pete’s Christmas_[/li][/ul] There’s also a _12 Days of Christmas Eve_, but that one obviously doesn’t fit the OP. . And I remember an episode of the _Fairly Oddparents_ that pulls this, where Timmy wishes every day was Christmas. Though, in this one, stuff actually carries over–it’s just that every day is somehow Christmas. People run out of money and Christmas basically becomes nothing.