Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Yeah, maybe, if Frankenstein is a romcom. I’m so glad someone asked me this. The question of what classifies as a Christmas movie and whether the Bruce Willis action movie counts as one is clearly something that divides people. So it is only right that you have sought the dispassionate wisdom of a Jewish atheist to sort this out for you.

Ultimately, of course, a great Christmas movie is one you (and, ideally, your family) enjoy watching at Christmas. The essential component is a lightness that allows you to watch the same thing every year. If Die Hard really ticks that box for you, then fine, but, seriously, we need to have a word about your take on the Yuletide message.

It is definitely set in the Christmas period and it is probably the jolliest movie with a body count in the mid-twenties. Nothing says Christmas like a hostage situation. It has all those heartwarming, season-of-goodwill messages such as “Yippee Ki-Yay motherf***er” and “Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho.” And, after all, did not Jesus not tell us to waste those bastards?

While the death toll seems high it’s still pretty Christmassy when compared with Die Hard 2, which leans a little more into the Christmas Eve plotline but boasts a body count of around 300. That’s a little too high even for the season of goodwill, though many of the casualties are definitely deserving of a good Christmas incineration. But if the date the film is set were enough to make this a Christmas film, then I guess we’d have to classify Saving Private Ryan as a summer movie.

The dispute hinges on how you categorise a Christmas movie. There are three categories of contender. Movies, like Die Hard, which are simply set around Christmas time; movies where the festival component is a significant plot line; and movies with what might be called a strong Christmas message.

As a purist, Jewish atheist I prefer the third category. The defining Christmas movie is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It is set on Christmas Eve. There is a struggle of compassion against avarice. You get an angel and a clear message on the true value of a life. It’s also got a defining Christmas movie ending as the hero, James Stewart, runs through the little town he finally appreciates after years of resentment. Of course, it is hokey, sentimental and simplistic but those are the core ingredients.

Today people are more cynical. Modern Christmas movies are a bit more humorous and knowing, so there are good cases to be made for Elf or The Muppet Christmas Carol, both excellent festive fare. There is also the riotously offensive and subversive Bad Santa, described as an evil twin of Miracle on 34th Street.

Then there are those set at Christmas and without much of a message other than that love and family are good things. Home Alone ranks highly among these. And for many, Love Actually does too. The latter is actually pretty cloying though saved by a couple of affecting performances by Laura Linney and Emma Thompson.

And this is where the case for Die Hard comes in. It patently was not originally conceived as a Christmas film because it was given a US release date in mid-July, which is early for the holiday season even by today’s standards. Nor is the title exactly suggestive of the Christmas spirit. It ticks only the first box by being set on Christmas Eve, with the hero struggling to get back to his wife, during a difficult time in their marriage — though it could just as easily be Thanksgiving.

But amid the welter of syrupy festival flicks it offers the welcome relief of comic violence. With every other film telling you to love your neighbour, Die Hard offers that essential and under-appreciated Christmas counter-message of “ice some bad guys”. After all the snivelling over The Snowman perhaps a feelgood action film — apart from the 23 dead bodies — is what’s required; the brisk walk after the heavy meal. Or maybe it’s the appeal of a more muscular, vengeful Christian warrior that I could see playing well with the Maga movement.

Anyway, as I said above, if it is something you and your loved ones like watching at Christmas, that’s all that matters. For you, it fits the bill. But if Die Hard is really a movie that captures the Christmas spirit, all I can say is that the church ought to consider a new communications strategy.

Email Robert at magazineletters@ft.com

Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend Magazine on X and FT Weekend on Instagram