Is 'Die Hard' truly a Christmas movie? (Let's debate!)

When the holiday season arrives, with the tree decorated, and the stockings hung, I will gather my loved ones close for an annual Christmas tradition — watching my favorite Christmas movie "Die Hard."

Ever since its 1988 debut, "Die Hard" fans have leaned into the Christmas aspects of the story and have made this action film, starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, a holiday tradition. But that has spurred a heated debate over what qualifies as a true Christmas movie, and if "Die Hard" can claim such a title. I say "yes," but my KUOW colleague Bill Radke, host of Week in Review, vehemently disagrees with me.

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"A Christmas movie is a movie that you can't describe without saying the word 'Christmas'." he said. "'Die Hard' does not fit that bill.”

On the latest episode of KUOW's arts podcast Meet Me Here, Bill and I throw down in a "Die Hard" debate, weighing the pros and cons, to determine this movie's place in Christmas movie canon. Listen below.

In short, "Die Hard" tells the story of John McClane, a New York police officer who travels to LA to mend his relationship with his estranged wife, Holly. She moved to LA, with the kids, for her career. John meets Holly at Nakatomi Plaza, a skyscraper office building, during her company Christmas party. While he is cleaning up in an office bathroom, terrorists take over the party and take hostages. John hides away in just his pants and shirt, leaving him as the only person who can stop the bad guys ... in his bare feet. The result is explosive.

Throughout the story, starting with the fact it is set at a Christmas party, there are various nods to the Christmas season — music, motifs, dialogue, Santa. Some argue that it even goes further.

"It still hits all of the Hallmark Christmas-movie tropes," Helen Roundhill said.

Roundhill plays the character of Holly in "A Very Die Hard Christmas," a musical parody performed each holiday season at the Green Lake Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle.

"You have an estranged family being brought back together by the power of Christmas … one of them is this high-earning, high-achieving person who, through the magic of terrorism, realizes that actually, maybe a slower life pace is important. And her name is Holly, for heaven's sake! There's snow at the end. Like to me, it hits all of those things that you expect from the overly saccharin sweet movie, but in a fun way, with machine guns.”

Every since 2018, Seattle Public Theater has performed "A Very Die Hard Christmas" eight times a week over the holiday season. It sells out, fast. Director Mark Siano says that tickets are often gone by the end of September.

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"I think the people have spoken," Siano said. "The amount of people that watch 'Die Hard' every year, and the amount of people that come to our show every year, there's no denying that 'Die Hard' is now a huge part of people's Christmas traditions. Was it originally intended to be a Christmas movie? Maybe not? Maybe?"

“It's a great action flick, and it definitely deserves to be re-watched," he said. "It just so happened that Christmas was there for 'Die Hard,' and 'Die Hard' was there for Christmas."

In the case of "Die Hard," my colleague Bill Radke argues that the Christmas setting is happenstance, and that it could have been set at Halloween, a bar mitzvah, a comic con, or no special event at all.

“Thing is, Christmas attracts a lot of hangers on," he explains. "Everybody wants to attach themselves to Christmas. Starbucks does. Amazon does. Songwriters, record labels, film studios …. it makes Christmas blur out … [it’s] Christmas-adjacent schlock. I love it. I love schlock. I like an eggnog in my coffee. It's fine, but it doesn't get to the core. I preserve a core Christmas in my own mind.”

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"I’m an atheist," he adds. "But the best Christmas movie is 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' It’s got all the lights and trees and angst and depression … and then Linus gets right to the Christmas point, and beautifully. Merry Christmas, God."

The problem with this debate is that Christmas can be a moving target. For religious audiences, unless a film has a baby in a manger, it's not a Christmas movie. For others, it's strictly about the tree, Santa, and Mariah Carey.

I would argue, however, that the nucleus of Christmas goes far beyond tinsel, and it is present in "Die Hard."

"Die Hard" is a Christmas movie

Various cultures across the globe often choose a time (generally when it's dark and cold) to embrace positive virtues over our worse characteristics. Families gather, while humility, generosity, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness are highlighted. Greed, pride, gluttony, and all our toxic traits are frowned upon. This is the core of Christmas, and "Die Hard."

That's why Christmas is a very specific holiday to use in "Die Hard." John McClane must learn humility. Family and human bonds are the ultimate prizes. Hans Gruber, the villain, is a cookie-cutter Grinch, representing greed, lack of empathy, disregard for humanity — all the bad characteristics that we contrast good virtues against.

Once you get past the superficial setting, this is what the movie wraps up in a bow. Without Christmas as the backdrop, the punch doesn't land.

You'll also often hear a couple other arguments around this debate. Just so we're covered:

"Die Hard" was released in July, not during Christmastime. A lot of cherished Christmas movies were never released around the holiday. "Holiday Inn" hit screens in August 1942, and its remake "White Christmas" was an October movie in 1954. "Miracle on 34th Street" was released in June 1947. Despite having a very limited release at the end of December 1946 (so it could qualify for the Academy Awards that year), nobody saw "It's a Wonderful Life" until January 1947.

"Die Hard" was never meant to be a holiday movie. So what? There are a lot of traditions that get folded into holidays that came from somewhere else. Nobody would deny that "Jingle Bells" ("One Horse Open Sleigh") is a Christmas song, yet this tune was never originally written for Christmas. It was first written for Thanksgiving in the mid-1800s, then became a drinking song long before Christmas took it on. Today, try not to think about Christmas when you hear the sound of sleigh bells.

This article was originally written in December 2024 and was updated in December 2025.