It’s an argument that comes up every single year: is the 1988 action classic Die Hard a Christmas movie or not? My answer is, “Of course it’s a Christmas movie,” but I count anything that takes place around the holiday and features Christmas decorations to be a Christmas movie. Die Hard, First Blood, Lethal Weapon, Cobra, Invasion U.S.A., A Force of One, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, they’re all Christmas action movies in my book. JoBlo’s own Bryan Wolford has laid out the reasons why all of us here accept Die Hard as a Christmas movie, and the film’s writer, Steven E. de Souza, agrees that it is. But someone who does not accept the evidence is Macaulay Culkin, star of a Christmas movie that doesn’t stir up any arguments, Home Alone.
Culkin is currently taking his A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin show on tour, sitting down for Q&As after screenings of Home Alone. During the Long Beach stop on the tour, he talked about his own favorite Christmas movies – and took the opportunity to cast some shade on Die Hard.
Culkin said, with thanks to People for the transcription, “A big one in our household growing up was A Christmas Story, certainly was always on. A lost classic or one that people kind of forget: Scrooged… Scrooged is awesome, though. Yeah, we watch it all the time. Those were ones that really stick out. There’s some ones that come later. Elf is a really good one, but I wasn’t raised on Elf, so it doesn’t have that nostalgia factor. And also, okay, guys, for real: Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie.“
Audience members booed him for that one, so he continued, “I know. Some of you guys want to fight me. I’ll meet you at the loading dock, but it’s just a movie that’s set at Christmas. If you set it at St. Patrick’s Day, the exact same movie. But you set Home Alone at St. Patrick’s Day…“
While Culkin is taking a stand against Die Hard, A Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley recently weighed in on the positive side of the debate. He said, “That relationship between John McClane and his estranged wife, they’re fractured, but by the end, they learn to forgive each other. There’s hope, there’s joy, and they’re going to go and have a great Christmas morning with their kids. Not to mention there’s Christmas songs, and they have the snow falling. In my opinion it is a Christmas movie.” Thank you, Peter.
What do you think of this debate? Are you Team “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” or Team “Macaulay Culkin is right”? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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