Someone did Halloween, but I don't see anyone doing Christmas xP
And no, I really don't think Die Hard shouldn't count. In fact, I would say I'm somewhat "genre agnostic", when it comes to Christmas movies, because a lot of my most memorable movie-watching/movie-going experiences have been during this particular set of holidays. Not only do I (or, just as importantly, the people around me) have more free time during this period than basically any other season of the year, but there's also the local Metro Manila Film Festival, although the last time I participated in that was 2016.
See, the film that really caught my attention from that year was the trans tragicomedy Die Beautiful, although I wasn't able to catch that year's other highlights, the documentary Sunday Beauty Queen and the political drama Oro. But, "shamefully" enough, I think my all-time favourite Christmas movie is one that has likely never been shown here in the Philippines, at least not in its full form (and I'm talking about proper theatrical screenings, not streaming services): Ingmar Bergman's gorgeous 1982 period piece Fanny och Alexander. Indeed, a lot of the movies I closely associate with the holidays seem to come from the 80s -- Die Hard, sure, but also Woody Allen's comedy-drama Radio Days (the film concludes on New Year's Day), John Huston's adaptation of the James Joyce novella The Dead (set in Epiphany), and Gabriel Axel's adaptation of the Karen Blixen short story Babette's Feast, all released in 1987 -- though I also look forward to rewatching the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis, the Futurama 2007 direct-to-DVD continuation "Bender's Big Score", and my fanedits of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Which leads me to Christmas specials. While I would say that first watching the Adventure Time episode "Holly Jolly Secrets" was the moment when the entire ethos of one of my now-favourite television series finally clicked, I don't really see it as a Christmas special. In fact, Christmas specials in general don't hold much of a place for me, perhaps because we rarely spend any time watching network TV during such holidays: if we are gonna be stuck before a non-theatrical screen, we're gonna be watching, say, something from someone's hard drive. I do remember really engaging with the Rugrats' Chanukah special, though, and I'm grateful that Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme filmed a version of their popular holiday shows....
See, the film that really caught my attention from that year was the trans tragicomedy Die Beautiful, although I wasn't able to catch that year's other highlights, the documentary Sunday Beauty Queen and the political drama Oro. But, "shamefully" enough, I think my all-time favourite Christmas movie is one that has likely never been shown here in the Philippines, at least not in its full form (and I'm talking about proper theatrical screenings, not streaming services): Ingmar Bergman's gorgeous 1982 period piece Fanny och Alexander. Indeed, a lot of the movies I closely associate with the holidays seem to come from the 80s -- Die Hard, sure, but also Woody Allen's comedy-drama Radio Days (the film concludes on New Year's Day), John Huston's adaptation of the James Joyce novella The Dead (set in Epiphany), and Gabriel Axel's adaptation of the Karen Blixen short story Babette's Feast, all released in 1987 -- though I also look forward to rewatching the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis, the Futurama 2007 direct-to-DVD continuation "Bender's Big Score", and my fanedits of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Which leads me to Christmas specials. While I would say that first watching the Adventure Time episode "Holly Jolly Secrets" was the moment when the entire ethos of one of my now-favourite television series finally clicked, I don't really see it as a Christmas special. In fact, Christmas specials in general don't hold much of a place for me, perhaps because we rarely spend any time watching network TV during such holidays: if we are gonna be stuck before a non-theatrical screen, we're gonna be watching, say, something from someone's hard drive. I do remember really engaging with the Rugrats' Chanukah special, though, and I'm grateful that Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme filmed a version of their popular holiday shows....