Movies set (at least partly) at Christmas that aren't Christmas movies

Cafe Society
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Die Hard has become the pre-eminent example here, but there are plenty of others*.

Things to Come – H.G. Wells himself wrote the screenplay for this weirdly uneven bit of prediction made in 1937. He starts it out in a city clumsily called “Everytown”, but which is clearly London, with a conspicuous St. Paul’s cathedral dome in it. It’s Christmas time, with plenty of shots of holly, Father Christmas, Christmas Geese hanging in the shop window, and carolers, but it’s only an excuse to offer, side by side with that, plenty of warnings about an impending war. (The enemy is not named or implied, but you’d have to be tone-deaf not to realize it was Germany). The contrast between Peace of Earth and Imminent War is obviously what Wells was after, and he depicts a rapidly-evolving war with prescient scenes of London being bombed from the air and large parts being reduced to rubble.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – A lot of Bond films got released around Christmas (unless they were released for the Summer Season), but I don’t know of any others that exploited the Christmas setting like this. It even has a Christmas song in it – “Do you know how Christmas Trees are Grown?”, written by John Barry with lyrics by Hal David (!!), and sung by Nina. There’s a Christmas tree in Blofeld’s headquarters, and there are Christmas Presents Which feature as a plot point) If you wanted an action-adventure movie to serve as a “Christmas movie”, OHMSS has a better claim to it that Die Hard – Christmas is baked in its DNA as in a Christmas cookie.

The Apartment – Billy Wilder’s dramedy with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray as The Bad Guy is set in NYC at Christmas.

Batman Returns – Tim Burton’s second Batman film is set in Gotham City at Christmas, looking like Rockefeller Center in New York, and even has a scene in front of the giant Christmas Tree clearly intended to be the one over the real city’s skating rink.

The Thin Man – I’d forgotten that this one was set at Christmas, but it suffuses the film.

Any others? Here’s a list of some – 16 Great Christmas Movies That Aren’t Christmas Movies

*to the point where there’s a Fake Little Golden Book version of it.

There’s one for Home Alone, too, but that one has a legit claim on being a “Christmas movie”

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There are a lot of them, I’m sure. But the first two that came to my mind are:

Penny Serenade - Cary Grant & Irene Dunne

Holiday Affair - Robert Mitchum & Janet Leigh (I guess “holiday” is in the title, but not what I’d consider a Christmas movie. Maybe this isn’t what you’re looking for.) It does have the best line on a movie poster: Above Mitchum’s head is a bubble that says, “Baby, you’re just what I want for Christmas” !

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Taking place in December, SHAZAM has Christmas songs and Christmas lights and a Christmas market and a department-store Santa and mention of a Christmas present and snow on the ground and decorations on the tree and at some point that’d maybe add up to a Christmas movie but I’m not sure it’s quite there…

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The various adaptations of Little Women all feature at least one Christmas season (I think there were at least two different Christmases in the book), but I don’t think of them as Christmas movies. I’ve seen the 1949 and 1994 versions, but not the more recent one.

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Holiday Inn celebrates other holidays in addition to Christmas, though the finale (and most famous song) is on Christmas.

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Well aside from rejecting your premise that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie (but we have another thread on that), L.A. Confidential involves crimes that happen around Christmas.

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Ordinary People takes place over the holiday season.

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Kiss of Death (1947) opens on Christmas Eve with ex-con Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) doing “shopping” with two accomplices at a jewelry store.

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THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) has a sequence that takes place at a town hall Christmas dance and a late night Christmas pool party.

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The little known Canadian feature, The Silent Partner, is set at Christmas time and in fact features a Santa. It stars Elliott Gould and a menacing Christopher Plummer. Curtis Hansen wrote the screenplay and it features an early John Candy role. It is a neat, quirky and suspenseful thriller. Absolutely devoid of Christmas spirit.

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“Trading Places” takes place, in part, at Christmas (with Dan Aykroyd dressed in a Santa suit at one point).

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Bell, Book, and Candle begins on Christmas Eve (the witches and warlocks exchange some interesting gifts), but it’s not really about Christmas.

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:slight_smile:

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As I said, there is 300+ comment thread. But the screenwriter and director claim it’s a Christmas movie (and the director just released a long YouTube viedo on it). So Bruce Willis is wrong.

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Cool. I just posted it because I thought it was funny. If you watch Willis doesn’t seem to care either. Just joking around.

Either way, I really could not care less. I like it as a Christmas movie and that is all that matters to me for this.

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How do you feel about Love, Actually?

Many of the scenarios take place in and around holiday prep, but it’s not really a movie about the meaning of Christmas.

Similarly, About a Boy. The main character lives off royalties from a Christmas novelty tune, which we hear at one point, but there’s little other direct reference to the holiday.

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Hitchcock’s Psycho takes place at Christmas. It’s mentioned in the beginning of the film and then… never mentioned or referred to again.

The story I heard was that some b-roll had been shot in Phoenix around Christmas, and some Xmas decor had made it into the shots. So the movie opens on (or near) Christmas because that was easier than waiting until the city removed their decorations to re-shoot those scenes.

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Love, Simon.

The film covers basically an academic year but some of the most important parts take place at Christmas, including Christmas Day

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I have a suggestion for this category. It feels very much like a Christmas movie, but I don’t think it is. It’s a British movie from 1952 called The Holly and the Ivy. It certainly takes place on Christmas weekend, in a small town in Norfolk, I think. Ralph Richardson plays a rather elderly parson (probably in his 60’s, which in those days was doddery), who has three adult children, and some relations of his own generation, and the movie is about the family gathering, as it only does once a year, and this year some issues get worked out somewhat. It’s really a family drama about personal responsibility to both do your duty and also to be happy, and it happens to take place at Christmas because that’s when the family gathers.

I really like this movie, there is very little sentiment in it, Christmasy or otherwise. Not that much religion either. It doesn’t show up often, TCM showed it this evening. I don’t know if it is available on any streaming service, but I recommend it.

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Maciste in Hell (1926) takes place partially on Christmas Day. In fact, SPOILER Maciste escapes Hell as a result of a small child’s Christmas prayer.