Christmas at the Movies

Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television. Since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, these films are sold and re-sold every year during the holiday shopping season. Many television networks, film studios, and production companies, such as cable television channels Hallmark and Lifetime, produce and release new Christmas-themed films every year during or around December, all with variations of similar plots and themes. Additionally, films revolving around the Nativity story of Christmas are regularly produced such as The Nativity Story (2006) and The Star (2017). One film that has become the flashpoint for "Is this a Christmas movie or not?" debates is Die Hard (1988), with some viewing the film as a Christmas movie intertwined with an action genre setting or a film that is simply set around the Christmas and holiday season.