5 films you never realized were Christmas movies

You've heard all about those non-standard Christmas classics, like Die Hard, Gremlins, Batman Returns, even Eyes Wide Shut. People continue to debate whether these non-obvious holiday classics are truly Christmas movies—and they are. It's time for those silly debates to end. I've noticed several other obvious ones that never seem to come up, so I'm staking my claim for these as absolute Christmas films, and I'll give you my reasons why.

ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS (1995): I've never understood how people can say, with a straight face, that this early Jim Carrey vehicle is not a Christmas movie. Take a look at the facts:

I remember I rented it on VHS December 6th, 1996, and when I watched it there was snow everywhere outside. Everywhere! I think the Santa Claus parade was actually the next day. Christmas much? We weren't off from school yet, but that was soon to come; oh, there were decorations up in my 7th-grade classroom as well. Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls is absolutely a Christmas movie, yes.

THIS IS 40 (2013): I got to this delightful, if overlong, Judd Apatow–directed romantic comedy straight out of the gate, watching it at the theatre the day it premiered, December 21st.

Oh, not close enough for you to the most joyous day of the year? My sister was literally eating a candy cane right next to me, so what does that tell you? That it's a summer movie? Funny, I don't remember seeing a lot of candy canes around on Victoria Day weekend. Just accept it: this is a Christmas movie, and I screen it every year during the holidays for my young family.

Also if I recall correctly the man believes he's turning into Santa Claus after accidentally killing him. Is that a different film? Does that not happen to Paul Rudd in this movie? I believe that's from This Is 40.

SPEED (1994): I hear a lot of people saying that this isn't a Christmas movie—or even more frequently, not even bothering to deny it, as if they consider it self-evident that this Keanu Reeves vehicle (ha!) is not a Christmas movie. I expected they'd be pretty speechless after learning that I watched this at my mom's house on December 24th.

Yup.

Christmas. Eve.

My. Mother. Was. Already. Cooking. The. Turkey.

Speed is a Christmas movie, and I don't need Tom, Dick, Harry, Roger Ebert, or Leonard Maltin to agree with me. I know it when I see it. I know it when I smell it. It smells like the turkey my mom was already cooking and that I would grab pieces of when she wasn't looking while Dennis Hopper tried to destroy a bus.

No they weren't fully cooked yet so let me have this one, went through a lot watching that holiday classic.

WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954): Controversial, but yes.

HALLOWEEN (1978): On a particularly difficult Christmas day, whilst separated from my young family largely but not entirely due to my film choices, I looked through a box of old keepsakes and found a copy of the John Carpenter slasher classic Halloween.

I have to be honest, I have never thought of this as a Christmas movie, per se. I'd usually watched it around Halloween-time, and the title itself mentions that self-same holiday. And yet as I watched it on Christmas, while blasting Bing Crosby in the background and eating the candy/reading the joke from a Christmas cracker… something seemed… different. It just goes to show you, sometimes it can take a lot of searching—and a temporary basement apartment—before you find the Christmas in a Christmas classic.

And there's the list. I hope you all learn to appreciate this holiday evergreens as much as I do, and send me your own hidden Christmas movies, like Jurassic Park viewed while sitting on a sleigh.

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