It’s a Wonderful Life... unless you’re watching it in Summer

If I am ever made Prime Minister – which is about as likely as Hugh Grant’s bumbling, slightly lecherous portrayal of the PM being spotted IRL outside 10 Downing Street, celebrating Christmas before December would be immediately criminalised. Unfortunately for all the Facebook mums in June posting: “just watched Home Alone with the kids lol – Xmas countdown starting already only 179 sleeps hehe xx”, this would most decidedly stretch to Christmas films.

In my (highly extensive) research for this article, I realised that Christmas films generally fall into two camps: Christmas Movies and films that are set at Christmas time. The former, Christmas Movies, are easy to spot; often overflowing with sparkle and cheer and cheesy mush, like Will Ferrell’s all singing all happy Buddy the Elf. My short list includes, but is certainly not limited to: Elf (2003), It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), The Polar Express (2004), Love Actually (2003), Home Alone (1990), and A Muppet’s Christmas Carol (1992). All of these films (except for Elf, I really do hate that one) are amazing Christmas classics, but should not under any circumstances be watched at any other time of year. Ever.

It is now that we are faced with a problem. These 'films-set-at-Christmas-but-aren’t-really-Christmassy' films are much more difficult to sort into whether you can get away with them in the last week of November, or whether I wouldn’t blink an eye at them getting stuck on one random day in March. Die Hard (1988), Trading Places (1983), and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), while easily up there as some of my favourite films, also fall into the Christmas only camp. If anything, I think that saving these for those frosty December nights, with a glass of wine or hot chocolate, cuddled up next to the people you want to spend your holidays with, actually makes them much more special. It keeps the magic of Christmas alive even if you’re a miserable cynic like me the rest of the year. Other films, I think you can get away with for varying reasons: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) transcend the boundaries of Halloween and Christmas too much to be pigeonholed; Little Women (2019) and Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001) are a needs must when an existential life crisis is looming, and you just can’t reliably time those for December nowadays, so they make the year-round cut too.

And for anyone who tries to argue with me that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas film, all I have to say is that I’m sure Hans Gruber wouldn’t have bothered if it was Thanksgiving.