By Brendan Clementz

While looking for some holiday movies to watch this year, I came to the realization that not many notable holiday movies have been made in recent years, and I’m starting to get tired of watching Home Alone for the 84th time. To remedy the lack of new material to watch, I asked around and racked my brain to make a list of unconventionally holiday movies.

1. Die Hard

Die Hard is an easy pick as an unconventional Christmas movie. Every person trying to be quirky at the Christmas party will tell you their favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard, but it’s true. The first Die Hard takes place during Christmas Eve, with the setting of a holiday party gone sour, as Bruce Willis’s New York detective John McClane is determined to save his ex-wife from terrorists that crashed the party — just as dawn breaks on Christmas Day. You can spend New Years’ Eve watching all the sequels. 

2. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone

While Harry Potter is a year-round film, it does have a scene or two that take place during Christmas, but that’s not all. The entire movie gives off a Christmas-y air, both with its strange and fantastical setting as well as its emphasis on magic, something very important to the Christmas atmosphere. If only it were possible to get an Invisibility Cloak as a present. 

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas

It seems like people always watch this movie primarily during Halloween instead of the holiday season, even though it fits both Halloween and Christmas. Sure, it has a very spooky theme, and most of it revolves around the setting of Halloween Town, but look, Santa’s right there, held captive by Oogie Boogie, a sentient bag of bugs! It totally counts, no matter how you spin it.

4. Edward Scissorhands

A movie as strange in premise as it is heartfelt at its core, Edward Scissorhands is a movie very reminiscent of Christmas in theming. Poor Edward, a reject from a late mad scientist, tries to fit into the world of humans after being taken in by a typical suburban family. It even takes place during the holiday season. What more could you want from a not-really-Christmas movie?

5. Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Fantasy is a great genre for the season with magic in the air, and stepping out from a wardrobe into a winter wonderland is how the Narnia series of films begins. You can also watch the other ones, although the first one gives off the most wintry atmosphere, with the main antagonist, the White Witch, keeping the land of Narnia under a blanket of snow.

Hopefully, this list may have given you some ideas of what to watch to spice up this holiday season. Just make sure you grab a blanket and check the age ratings appropriately if you’re watching with family. Die Hard might not be the most family-friendly movie.