Die Hard is NOT a Christmas Movie (but yes it is)

I tackle the most important debate during these difficult times

In 1988, I saw Die Hard in the theater. I’d become a Bruce Willis fan watching him on Moonlighting, that award-winning prime time television series also starring Cybil Shepherd. He played a smart-ass on TV so I was intrigued to see he’d been cast to play an action hero. I loved the movie, enjoyed watching Willis go on to have a successful film career, and that was that.

Fast forward about a decade and a half, and I’m suddenly hearing people call Die Hard a Christmas movie. What the fuck? Christmas? All I remembered of the film was the killings, explosions, and the yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker. So I watched it again in earnest and still walked away saying “Nope—not a Christmas movie”.

Look at all that Christmas cheer on the poster. Okay it happens on Christmas Eve—we get it

For starters, the movie was a summer blockbuster. It was released in US theaters in July. Christmas movies are released in November or December, in the spirit of the holiday season. If anything, it’s the Independence Day holiday spirit that seems more in line with a plot about an every man who successfully defends the woman he loves (America) against foreign thieves (the British).

Most movies we’d categorize as Christmas flicks are rated G, PG, or PG-13. They’re created with families in mind, stories that lil’ Timmy and Great Grandma can enjoy alongside everyone else. There’s usually an obvious moral to the tale, something about generosity, forgiveness, and kindness, sometimes steeped within an overtly Christian theme but usually secular. “Obvious moral” to the story is key here; Christmas movies aren’t trying to be allegories—they’re spelling it out for you. Nobody misses the moral message in A Christmas Carol, it’s “Don’t be a greedy sociopathic asshole like Scrooge”. Die Hard is rated R for a shit-ton of violence and profanity, things most people wouldn’t call “family friendly”. And the moral lessons to be gleaned could be anything from “marry a good cop” to “you’re better off skipping the office holiday party”.

What Christmas movie doesn’t have massive amounts of gun violence, amirite

Speaking of, the office Christmas Eve party is the first reason most people say Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I mean, sure, there are Christmas baubles, some Christmas puns, and an enormous decorated tree in Nakatomi Plaza on the night of the office party, but this is all incidental to the story—not a necessary part of the plot. The filmmakers could’ve made it a retirement party and it would be the exact same film. The employees stay late to celebrate their boss’s bon voyage, John McClane arrives to try to win back his estranged wife, the gang of thieves make their surprise entrance, McClane becomes the reluctant hero. In a Christmas movie, Christmas IS the plot, it can’t be replaced.

Most people would put Christmas horror movies squarely in the horror category, for obvious reasons. Films like Better Watch Out (2016) and Violent Night (2022)—2 of my faves—are terror-driven tales full of gory savagery, sexual content, and the kind of profane speech that would make most Christians clutch their fake pearls. Yet even these movies belong in the Christmas film category more than Die Hard does, because Christmas is central to the plots (can’t be replaced), the movies’ titles reference Christmas-adjacent phrases, and the Christmas themes are apparent on the posters. None of these things are true of Die Hard.

Even the holiday music that makes up the Die Hard score are mostly secular winter songs, not explicitly Christmas. “Let It Snow”, “Jingle Bells”, and “Winter Wonderland” are all songs about the winter season. One exception though is Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”. Which reminds me: a lot of people pull meaning from Bonnie Bedelia’s character being named “Holly”. This seems like a clear nod to the beautiful red and green plant that was used by Pagans to ward off evil spirits during the winter solstice until the Christians came along and rebranded it. Still, this is incidental. Her name could’ve been Polly and it would be the same movie. Just like the scene when McClane kills one of the bad guys and sends his body back to Hans Gruber wearing a Santa hat and a bloody message that includes the phrase “Ho Ho Ho”, it comes off to me like the filmmakers were just having fun with the Christmas party theme after already deciding to make it an office Christmas party. In other words, incidental. If they’d opted to make it an office St. Patrick’s Day party, the dead guy would’ve had a green leprechaun’s hat on his head and the message “Where’s me pot o’ gold” on his shirt.

I will say this: I can see how some people see McClane as a Christ-like figure. He’s a blue collar man who risks his life to save others in extreme circumstances, fights a powerful team of thugs, cuts his barefoot on broken glass (symbolizing stigmata), and seeks forgiveness and redemption from his estranged wife. But sometimes we see allegory where none was intended, and that’s okay. To me, The Wizard of Oz is a secular humanist atheist allegory, filled with obvious criticisms of religions and religious beliefs. Was that intentional? Probably not. It’s common knowledge that L. Frank Baum wrote it as a critique of populism and capitalism. The yellow brick road symbolized gold, the Emerald City symbolized money, you get the picture. But is it possible it was also a critique of religion but he couldn’t say that out loud during a time atheists were demonized and ostracized more than they are now? Sure. Who knows.

But we do know Die Hard wasn’t intended to be a Christmas allegory, straight from the horse’s mouth. Here’s a quote from director John Mc Tiernan, interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2020:

In other words, if it’s a Christmas movie to you then it’s a Christmas movie. Just like The Wizard of Oz is an atheism movie to me. That’s the beauty of art—we get from it what we get from it.