21 Movies Sure To Fire Up The “Is It Really A Christmas Movie” Debate

Almost everyone has a favorite Christmas movie they watch every single year. It’s freezing out, we’re all tired from schlepping to the mall to buy presents and prep for the holidays, and there’s really nothing that feels more festive than watching a movie on the couch with some sugar cookies and hot tea. But the subject of Christmas movies is a weirdly controversial one. There are the classics (both new and old) such as A Christmas Story, or Bad Santa. There are Christmas rom-coms like The Holiday or Love, Actually. There's even the Christmas horror genre with movies like Krampus.

The thing is, those movies are all very clearly Christmas-y. Their entire plots are based around Christmastime and the stories wouldn't make sense without Christmas as a backdrop. But what about the movies that are non-Christmas-Christmas movies? Like, movies that take place around Christmas but aren’t technically Christmas movies? Or movies that could go either way? There are certain “Un-Christmas” movies that spark conversation every year, making us wonder if they’re theoretically allowed to be called Christmas movies or not. 

Here’s a list of movies that have caused some heated debate over whether they’re actually Christmas movies or not.