Well I started the thread many years ago as a topic and then made it a tradition to bump it during the holidays each year because it continues to get discussion and is fun. I had also that same year started a thread as to whether the Peanuts theme is Christmas music and for while also bumped that but it stopped getting any responses so I stopped bumping it a few years back.
I’ll just do my regular response “NO!” It’s set at Christmas time, but not a Christmas movie.
And the guy who almost never posts will delurk to say “yup, it sure is a Christmas movie!”
Ho. Ho. Ho.
But do you have a machine gun?
Delurking just to be wrong about something is a pretty bold move. 
A very meta question. The answer depends up the resolution of this critical debate—within this very thread. Cool, eh?
BTW, my vote is that it’s a Christmas movie.
It’s a Christmas thread but not a Christmas movie.
Unlike the Rudolf thread, which is both a Christmas thread and movie.
Let’s compare Die Hard to that other violent ‘Christmas’ movie Lethal Weapon, to show why Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
In Lethal Weapon, Christmas is just a backdrop. A fight happens around a Christmas tree. Christmas is mentioned a couple of times. There is a Christmas dinner, but at the end of the movie. It could have been set at any time of the year with very little change.
In Die Hard, Christmas is integral to the plot, and it’s a very ‘Christmas’ plot: Estranged family member comes home for Christmas. There is a big Christmas party gone wrong. Santa makes an appearance. In the end, the characters rediscover their love for each other. In a heartwarming scene, a police officer who shot a kid once rediscovers his love of shooting people. How is that not a Christmas miracle?
Of course, Santa did have a machine gun, the happy couple was brought together again mostly by gunfire, not the spirit of Christmas. But you can’t have everything.
If Die Hard is not a Christmas movie, then Sleigh Ride is not a Christmas tune.
Yes. Yes it is.
Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, just as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a Fourth of July novel.
There’s a poll about this on another message board that I frequent. After three weeks of voting, “Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie” is holding a slight edge, 190 to 177.
This is the key thing.
The best Christmas movies are fundamentally about the protagonist growing in the direction of appreciating family, Christmas, or both. John McClane is separated from his family. The separation becomes worse, but McClane overcomes that, and is reunited with his wife. Along the way, he plays Santa Claus by providing many people with the gifts of bullets and fiery explosions.
How ISN’T it a Christmas movie? Christmas helps to move the plot along; the reason McClane is there is Christmas, the reason Gruber and his goons are there at that time is Christmas. It has more Christmas music than a lot of so-called Christmas movies. People fly, like Santa. For Pete’s sake, HIS WIFE IS CALLED “HOLLY.” The villain is greedy, which is a classic trope in Christmas movies, the conflict between greed and the true spirit of Christmas. We see a miracle happen (the FBI helps open the vault.)
Your lips to John McLane’s ears. Preach it!
Can I get a ‘Yippee Kay A’ ?
I voted no in 2013, yea in 2018, and I will continue to be on the yes side in 2023.
If ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie, so is ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.
Don’t forget a solitary man facing down an angry mob.
Or an alcoholic beating a defenseless boy (with visible blood) when he doesn’t perform as ordered.
The other day on CNN, Jake Tapper interviewed author Jeremy Arnold, author of Christmas in the Movies: 30 Classics to Celebrate the Season, in which he argues that Die Hard is, in fact, a Christmas movie.