There are lists of the best Christmas movies here and there, and all are arguable, not only about how "great" they really are, but whether they are Christmas movies at all. Must a Christmas movie be about Christmas, or merely take place during Christmastime? What if there's only one scene that takes place during the season? By now, we've pretty much settled on the fact that Die Hard is, in fact, a Christmas movie, but there are plenty of edge cases in various Christmas movie lists. Gabriella Paiella is of the opinion that The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the greatest Christmas movie, despite the fact that it's three movies, and she makes a point of watching all 12 hours every holiday season. Her first argument is that they were all released to theaters in December, during her childhood, so viewers of her generation will always have that connotation. But there are other reasons to see The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King as Christmas films.
The most obvious is that there are elves. Yes, the elves are tall and lithe and have silky blonde extensions. And one of the main ones is now married to Katy Perry, one is Stephen Tyler’s daughter, one was in The Matrix, and the last one is angry and sexy Cate Blanchett. Sorry, where was I going with this? They’re still elves. But if you’re looking for the traditional Keebler cookie and Santa’s workshop variety short kings, there are hobbits. For more atmospheric holiday touches, the palantir are basically snow globes, Gandalf looks like Santa, and Saruman looks like the weird mall Santa you don’t want to let near your kids.
And there are more reasons that will cause you to squint your eyes and say, yeah, maybe you can see it, at GQ.
(Image credit: Flickr user Michael Matti)