When it鈥檚 Christmas, and your partner loves Christmas movies, you will happen to watch many Christmas movies. Because of this, I鈥檓 now able to categorize the different types of Christmas movies that exist out there, and in the process realize there鈥檚 a fairly surprising omission based on the seemingly hundreds of Christmas movies I鈥檝e watched in the past several years.
Christmas romance, examples include A Christmas Prince, Operation Christmas Drop, The Knight Before Christmas. A woman is alone on Christmas, but then an opportunity for love drops in the form of a handsome man who is somehow different from anyone she has ever known. Sometimes he鈥檚 a down to earth guy who builds things, sometimes he鈥檚 royalty. He鈥檚 always really into 小蓝视频 nice to people, often does charity work or helps orphans. Eventually they fall in love, and obstacles might include additional handsome men, government budgetary oversight committees, and time travel. Before you say 鈥渟ome of those feel like very strange obstacles for romance鈥� let me assure you that they only occasionally make sense in context.
Christmas romance sequel, examples include Princess Switch: Switched Again, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. A category which is a relatively recent development, mostly because the majority of these movies used to be made for TV and are now made for streaming services (where they know people actually watched them), the romance sequel sets itself apart by generally having no stakes at all and trading on the audience鈥檚 affection for the characters and whatever they鈥檙e doing now. Sometimes this works out for the better, as the second Princess Switch is substantially better than the first entirely because it let star Vanessa Hudgens cut loose as a vapid heiress - there are no less than three princesses in this one - and sometimes it doesn鈥檛, because the less said about the Christmas Prince sequels the better.
It鈥檚 a wonderful Christmas Carol, examples include It鈥檚 a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, Dolly Parton鈥檚 Christmas on the Square. When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, he probably didn鈥檛 imagine he鈥檇 create an entire category of films where supernatural 小蓝视频s teach people about the value of kindness/Christmas/their wonderful life/etc. Some of these are classics, remembered fondly for decades - and locally, the Paper Bag Players are doing an audio version of It鈥檚 A Wonderful Life that everyone should definitely listen to, not just because I鈥檓 in it. Some of these are terrible, mostly the ones that involve Santa Claus. Sometimes they lead to questions such as 鈥渄id these angels almost kill a small child in order to teach Christine Baranski a lesson about not 小蓝视频 so greedy?鈥� One might argue that because Dickens and Frank Capra (who directed It鈥檚 a Wonderful Life) got it right that we don鈥檛 need more of these stories, unless those stories are 小蓝视频 presented by talented local theatre groups, but they don鈥檛 realize that they could have a scene where Santa Claus put someone in a coma because he made a bad Amazon knockoff.
Santa Claus lore, examples include The Christmas Chronicles, Arthur Christmas, The Santa Clause. Who is Santa Claus, really? Is he an old man who delivers toys to children? Does he have his own children, and do they want to be Santa next? Is he an advertisement for Coca Cola? Is he really just Kurt Russell? If you murder him, do you become Santa? These are all valuable questions that movies set out to answer. Often Santa isn鈥檛 what you expect!
Movies set at Christmas that are actually about robbery, examples include Die Hard, Home Alone. Sure Christmas is the backdrop here, but it鈥檚 mostly about injuring people who want to plan a heist. Don鈥檛 plan a heist at Christmas, it鈥檚 a terrible idea, you won鈥檛 succeed.
The story of the birth of Jesus Christ, from whom the name of the holiday is derived. There are no examples of this, sorry. There鈥檚 probably a book you can read about it.
