I had a discussion with my sister on christmas eve. We couldn't agree if die hard is a christmasmovie or not.

My sister argued that die hard cannot be a christmasmovie because it is not about christmas or anything christmas related and it isn't christmas-themed either.

But i think that by that logic "driving home for christmas" isn't a christmassong either, because it is not about christmas but about driving home. And there are no reindeerbells in it either so it's not even christmas-themed. But everyone knows that it is a christmassong because the radiostations only play it during christmas and it has the word christmas in it.

In my view, die hard is pretty simmilar to driving home for christmas: Chris rea wants to have christmas with his family, but in order to do that he first has to drive home.
In die hard, officer mcclane also wants to have christmas with his family, but instead of driving home, he first has to kill some terrorists and throw their leader hans grüber off the nakatomi tower.

So in both cases it's a story where the protagonist has to overcome obstacles, in one case distance and traffic and in the other case terrorists with machineguns and explosives, to get to his family and have christmas. So why would die hard not be a christmasmovie then?

Die hard was released in September, Driving Home for Christmas was released in December. Whatever logic you use, Driving Home for Christmas IS a Christmas song. The clue is in the title and it was released at christmas time. The original title of Die hard was Die hard for Christmas but they changed it due to the release date.

The movie is Christmas themed throughout. They play a Christmas song by Run DMC for the opening credits. It's at a Christmas party on Christmas Eve.

There are even subtle Christmas jokes, like when he leaves the dead body in the elevator with "HO HO HO NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN" written on his sweater.

For me, a movie or song just needs to have the theme of the holiday. Otherwise, by your sister's logic, Home Alone and Office Christmas party aren't Christmas movies either. Home alone is about a boy surviving being home alone while his family try to get back to him after leaving him on a Christmas trip. And Office Christmas Party is about people trying to save an annual Office party that happens to be for Christmas. But they aren't about Christmas.

Die Hard also ends with a Christmas song.

Another interesting note, my lady friend also doesn't like yo consider in a Christmas movie, and I think one of the real reasons why is due to the action and violence.

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Edit: with respect to the argument relative to when a movie was released, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas came out in the states on Nov 4 2011, which is closet to Halloween and before Thanksgiving.

Hmmm, November is the month before December. September and December have 2 clear months between them. This century a lot of shops have Christmas promos up in November but not September. Not so much back in the 1980s. November the 4th is after Halloween, so that's a non starter in my books. Thanks giving is mostly a North American/Canadian thing. Another no go, unless one happens to be the type that thinks the world revolves around America.
Also Harold and Kumar have christmas in the title.
I am not saying that Die hard is or isn't a Christmas movie. It is a subjective question. Like the existence of a god or Hard problem of consciousness. Or what is good art or when was the best era for popular music (it was the latter half of the 20th century but i am sure that someone could give a cogent argument against that). I am just being a good arbiter between dragonrider and his sister.

Yeah, it was a particular point relative to a previous part of the argument. I think how into it people get van be q little much.

I also saw stores with Christmas items for sale in August this year.

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