--- description: For those who don't want to watch 'Love Actually' and 'It's A Wonderful Life' title: Batman Returns, Die Hard and 9 Other Unconventional Christmas Movies image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 11 Christmas Movies You Didn't Know Were Christmas Movies  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Dec 22, 2014 2:00 PM CUT  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Dec 22, 2014 2:00 PM CUT For some, the best part of Christmas season is flipping through channels and stumbling upon a Christmas classic like _It’s A Wonderful Life_ or _Home Alone_. But maybe Christmas movies aren’t your style. Perhaps your friends made you watch _Love Actually_ one too many times. That’s okay. We’re here to help. TIME has gathered together a list of movies that take place during the holidays but don’t peddle cheesy Christmas morals. So the next time your family calls you a Scrooge for vetoing the _Charlie Brown Christmas Special_ when you’re home for the holidays, you can suggest one of these films as a compromise. Happy holidays! ### Die Hard  20th Century Fox Action movie fans will be delighted to learn that _Die Hard_ qualifies as a Christmas movie. Sure, the Christmas joy ends quickly once the terrorists start taking hostages, but is there a better present than John McLean jumping off exploding buildings? Yippee ki-yay! ### Eyes Wide Shut  Warner Bros. Best remembered for that orgy scene, Stanley Kubrick’s last film isn’t what you would call a family movie. In fact, the sparring between once-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman really takes a toll on the holiday spirit. Nevertheless, it _is_ set during Christmas. Yup. It counts. ### Batman Returns  Warner Bros. Ah, Christmas in Gotham, where ornaments (and sometimes even Christmas trees) are used as weapons in the war against bad guys like the Penguin and Catwoman. With Michael Keaton as a frontrunner in this year’s Oscar race for his performance as a washed-up actor who once played the superhero Birdman, it might be the right time to revisit Keaton’s origins as Batman. ### The Thin Man  9th March 1934: Myrna Loy (1905 - 1993) and William Powell (1892 - 1984) play sleuthing couple Nick and Nora Charles in 'The Thin Man', directed by W S Van Dyke. In this scene they discover the dangers of private detective work when threatened by Walter Long (1879 - 1952). MGM One of the best murder mystery films ever made, 1934’s _The Thin Man_ takes place over the Christmas season and concludes with private detective Nick Charles solving the crime at a holiday dinner. It may even inspire you to take a shot at your Christmas ornaments with a BB gun. ### Gremlins  Warner Bros. For those still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for their loved ones, steer clear of fuzzy creatures called Mogwai. (Hint: That’s Cantonese for monsters.) _Gremlins_ delights in skewering the tropes of Christmas time as the Mogwai-turned-Gremlins wreak havoc. One character even tells a story of how her dad got stuck in a chimney and died after dressing up as Santa. ### Lethal Weapon  Warner Bros. Yep — _Lethal Weapon_ is a Christmas movie. The film begins with “Jingle Bell Rock” and ends with a family united around a Christmas tree. But don’t worry: Danny Glover and Mel Gibson spare the sentimentality when they’re shooting bad guys or griping with one another. ### Edward Scissorhands  EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, Johnny Depp, Kathy Baker, 1990\. TM and Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. 20th Century Fox Though Tim Burton’s movies tend to have a more Halloween-y feel than a Christmas-y one, _Edward Scissorhands_ is a holiday movie at heart. The entire narrative is framed around a grandmother telling her grandchild why it always snows on Christmas. ### Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang  PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, PUBLICITY OR REVIEWS OF THIS SPECIFIC MOTION PICTURE AND TO REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF THE STUDIO. NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION. Warner Bros. It may not look it (thanks to the snow-free L.A. setting), but _Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang_ is a holiday movie. After all, it begins with Robert Downey, Jr.’s character robbing a toy store — in part to score one of the toys on his kid’s Christmas list. ### Trading Places  TRADING PLACES, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, 1983 Paramount Can a revenge comedy be filled with Christmas cheer? When the men getting punished are two Scrooge-like bigots, then yes it can! This Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd movie also features one of the best Christmas movie images ever: Aykroyd stuffing an entire salmon down the front of his dirty Santa suit. ### Rent  RENT, Jesse L. Martin, Rosario Dawson, Adam Pascal, Tracie Thoms, Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, 2005, (c) Columbia Columbia Though most know _Rent_ as the musical about impoverished young artists struggling to survive in New York’s Alphabet City during the AIDS crisis, many forget that the movie (and play upon which it is based) begins on Christmas Eve and end on Christmas a year later. ### The Harry Potter Films  Warner Bros. Yes, there’s only about one Christmas scene per _Harry Potter_ movie, but there’s something delightfully charming about watching British children celebrate Christmas in a snow-covered castle. And don’t forget that in the first movie Harry Potter receives the best Christmas present in the history of Christmas presents: the invisibility cloak. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3634524/christmas-movies-unconventional/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3634524/christmas-movies-unconventional/"},"headline":"11 Christmas Movies You Didn't Know Were Christmas Movies","datePublished":"2014-12-22T14:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:40.249Z","description":"For those who don't want to watch Love Actually and It's A Wonderful Life","url":"https://time.com/3634524/christmas-movies-unconventional/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3634524/christmas-movies-unconventional/","name":"11 Christmas Movies You Didn't Know Were Christmas Movies"}}]}] ```