Video

Ho-Ho-Ow!

A supercut of pain and violence in Christmas movies.

Though the reason for the season they celebrate is goodwill and cheer, holiday movies are surprisingly violent. True, a lot of great action movies are set around the holidays (we all agree Die Hard is probably the greatest Christmas movie of all time, right?), but most of the family oriented films have at least some moment of slapstick violence in them. For Hollywood, Christmas is almost always some gauntlet or physical challenge to be endured, and family is simultaneously a tremendous punishment and the ultimate reward. Especially for middle-age men, who continuously suffer the humiliation of physical inadequacy or defeat as they attempt to survive and provide warmth and material wealth to their families, their greatest source of both suffering and pride. Alternately, Hollywood Christmas is just a guaranteed annually marketing peg, and producers know there’s nothing as easy or more broadly appealing than watching a dude in a Santa suit get hit in the face with a giant plastic candy cane. The real meaning of Christmas is somewhere in between those two. Happy sadomasochistic Hollywood Christmas everyone!