The holiday season has yet to come to an end, and that means more snugging down and tuning in for some good-old Christmas movies on streaming services. One can never go wrong with classics, right? Disney+ provides Home Alone, The Santa Clause, and The Nightmare Before Christmas as their top selections for the festivities. Meanwhile, Prime Video offers Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas to ring in the holidays. Further, Netflix recommends It’s a Wonderful Life and Elf for the cheers of yuletide.
Naturally, the recommendations above are then reflected in the statistics. Forbes reported that according to a sample of 2,000 taken by Statista, the top 10 most-watched Christmas movies of 2022 are Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, and Miracle on 34th Street.
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Being hailed as a “Christmas classic” and viewed continually is, without a doubt, a coveted feat for any motion picture adapting said theme. This time, the honor falls to the releases that start from the 1940s, lingers around the 1960s, leaps to 1990, bounces at the 2000s, and stops at 2018. Excluding The Grinch and Elf, all the mentioned features are from the last century. While it is impressive how that lineup of films remains relevant after decades, it sparks up a query as well: why aren’t there more modern holiday classics, especially those released in the 2020s? After all, there are hundreds of movies about Christmas saturating the industry every year. Yet, so far, none of those modern pictures is able to attain the ultimate classic title, hence raising the real question: what went wrong?
What Makes a Movie a Christmas Classic?
20th Century Fox
Clearly, nostalgia and tradition are vital factors that cannot be left out when assessing a holiday flick’s classic-worthy quality. But really, it all comes down to the message of the movie. Christmas is the one time of year when everyone comes together in celebration of a truly special day of love, peace, and joy — to believe that something greater than ourselves is in store, perhaps even one that’s magical. Therefore, it’s only natural that the films revolving around the spirit of Christmas embody that value.
Take Home Alone, for instance, which features a cheeky yet sneakily clever eight-year-old troublemaker who accidentally got left behind alone at home during the Christmas vacation and must defend his house from being robbed by two bungling burglars with a series of traps. Initially thrilled to have all the freedom any kid can possibly dream of, the boy soon grows lonely without his family and wishes them to be back, especially after all the danger he faced. Like a Christmas miracle, his wish is granted, and all is well.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas tells the tale of a reclusive, mean creature, who has deep hatred toward the holiday and plans to ruin the celebration and ends up having a huge change of heart because of a little girl’s persistent attempts in helping him realize the true meaning of Christmas. In Frosty the Snowman, the eponymous character comes to life just by having a magic top hat on its head.
None of these three stories is remotely plausible to transpire in the present day. Yet, people watch them anyway for one simple reason: they succeed in capturing the essence of Christmas hopefulness, where having faith in belief is the key to reaching greater goodness.
What’s Wrong With Recent Holiday Movies?
Netflix
Seeing as how The Grinch successfully rose as the sole entry from the late 2010s to make the top-watched list and secure the crown of a holiday classic, it stands to reason that the releases from a similar period, the 2020s, can achieve the same. Interestingly, what hinders the modern Christmas features from gaining the classic title isn’t the message or the genre but the unoriginality — which is a bit ironic considering they’re all labeled as originals.
Falling for Christmas presents the returning actress Lindsay Lohan as the leading lady and the Glee star Chord Overstreet as her love interest. As cliché as the title, the narrative has proven to be as predictable as all rom-coms go. The amnesiac hotel heiress quite literally stumbles upon the care of a handsome lodge owner, and several romantic and comedic moments later, they find love in each other. But even the fabulous fame and prominent performance of the two leads combined cannot salvage the blatantly formulaic and, therefore, non-classic storyline.
Furthermore, the recycled plot approach also spreads to holiday films with diverse casts. Love Hard has Jimmy O. Yang, a Hong Kongese-American actor, star as the male lead. The movie centers on a woman who traveled far during the holidays to meet her hunk of a crush, only to learn she’s been catfished by an all-too-regular man. In addition, Single All the Way focuses on a man persuading his male best friend to pretend as his lover in a desperate attempt to end his family’s endless judgment regarding his single status. In accordance with the character, the queer protagonist is played by gay actor Michael Urie. A dash of diversity in casting is indeed a prudent move in this age, but nonetheless, it couldn’t elevate the quality of those Christmas flicks with the age-old, barely meaningful, and overall uninspired plot.
Now, executed well, Christmas rom-coms can be a classic; just look at Love Actually. And while there’s nothing wrong with watching the same holiday classics time and time again, having a new modern one to add to the binge list would be a refreshing change for once, wouldn’t it? So, here’s to filmmakers producing the right kind of Christmas movies in the future.
