What makes a good Christmas film?

By Rabnawaz Ahmad

What makes a good Christmas film? The answer to that varies heavily from person to person. From what I can gather, I just think it needs to be a good film that is tied to Christmas, whether that is through themes or the setting. A lot of the more popular Christmas films are tailored towards families which make sense. Most Christmas films are also supposed to make you feel happy either predominantly throughout or by the end, I don’t think anyone wants to watch a depressing Christmas movie with the family. 

Christmas movies tend to do really well in the box office for obvious reasons, they release around Christmas, have large staying power for subsequent years and are targeted towards a wide audience. The quality doesn’t necessarily matter, it just has to feel like a Christmas film although the bad ones are usually forgotten after their initial release. Alvin and the Chipmunks for some inexplicable reason is the third highest grossing Christmas film so I think that should prove how the quality isn’t necessarily important for initial showings. The opposite can be true as well, Klaus is an excellent film that was released a few years ago but ended up not doing very well in the box office. Similarly,  some Christmas films weren’t very well received critically but are classics today, such as the Home Alone film franchise.  

Though I don’t celebrate Christmas, I still enjoy a good Christmas movie… it just seems wrong to watch them at any other time…Have a good one.