{"id":21392,"date":"2025-12-19T21:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21392"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:29:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:29:44","slug":"home-alone-star-macaulay-culkin-insists-die-hard-is-not-a-christmas-movie-but-what-do-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21392","title":{"rendered":"Home Alone Star Macaulay Culkin Insists Die Hard Is NOT a Christmas Movie \u2014 but What Do You Think?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? The Bruce Willis action movie classic is a regular watch around this time of year, since it\u2019s set during Christmas (the movie starts on Christmas Eve, with Willis\u2019 character John McClane landing in LA to spend Christmas with his estranged wife). But its status as an official <\/em>Christmas movie has been hotly debated for decades. Well, there\u2019s one high-profile actor who thinks Die Hard is very much NOT a Christmas movie \u2014 and he should know, as the star of Home Alone.<\/p>\n

Macaulay Culkin played Kevin McCallister in two of the best Christmas movies ever made: Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, so you\u2019d think he\u2019d know a thing or two about what makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie. And for him, Die Hard doesn\u2019t fit the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo it\u2019s not. It\u2019s based around Christmas. Don\u2019t fight \u2014 fight me on the moon!\u201d Culkin insisted during an interview with Mythical Kitchen. \u201cIt\u2019s based around Christmas, but if it was also St. Patrick\u2019s Day, it would still be\u2026 it would work. But you couldn\u2019t do like a Memorial Day Home Alone. Nah, it doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cListen, I\u2019m kind of the godfather of Christmas nowadays. Yes, my opinion has some sway in this argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This isn\u2019t the first time Culkin has expressed his views on Die Hard\u2019s status. Last month, Culkin was actually booed by an audience for saying it wasn\u2019t. Speaking at A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Home Alone, the 45-year-old actor said: “I know. Some of you guys want to fight me, I\u2019ll meet you at the loading dock, but it\u2019s just a movie that\u2019s set at Christmas. If you set it at St. Patrick’s Day, the exact same movie. But you set Home Alone at St. Patrick’s Day…”<\/p>\n

Culkin, who stars in Fallout Season 2 on Prime Video, has certainly raised a few eyebrows with his comments, but it\u2019s worth remembering that in 2017, Steven E. de Souza, who wrote Die Hard, took to social media to joke that Die Hard is in fact a Christmas movie \u201cbecause the studio rejected the Purim draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when one social media user asked how Die Hard could be considered a Christmas movie when it came out in the summer of 1988, de Souza replied to point out that Miracle on 34th Street, perhaps the definitive Christmas movie, came out in the summer of 1947.<\/p>\n

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pic.twitter.com\/vApjUrqDCt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Steven E. de Souza (@StevenEdeSouza) December 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

de Souza added. \u201cPlus a woman about to give birth features prominently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to People in 2024, A Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley said Die Hard cinematographer, Jan de Bont, offered one reason why Die Hard is a Christmas movie:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what sold [de Bont] is I said, \u2018That relationship between John McClane and his estranged wife, they’re fractured, but by the end, they learn to forgive each other. There\u2019s hope, there\u2019s joy, and they\u2019re going to go and have a great Christmas morning with their kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to mention there\u2019s Christmas songs, and they have the snow falling. In my opinion it is a Christmas movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? YOU DECIDE! Photo by 20th Century-Fox\/Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Director John McTiernan has also weighed in, telling the American Film Institute<\/u> in 2020: \u201cWe hadn\u2019t intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps the final word should go to Bruce Willis himself. In Comedy Central\u2019s 2018 Roast of Bruce Willis, the star joked: \u201cI did this roast for one reason and for one reason only, to settle something once and for all. Now, please listen very carefully: Die Hard is not a Christmas movie! It\u2019s a goddamn Bruce Willis movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what do you think? Give our poll, below, asking this most important of Christmas questions a go, then take to the comments to offer your expanded thoughts!<\/p>\n

Photo by 20th Century-Fox\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n