There are so many Christmas / holiday movies. The tropes of the holiday make it far too easy to whip up a boilerplate story and put it on the screen. Even the most plebeian of plots will find an audience. Not all can be classics; but with luck you’ll at least avoid making a stinker.

With the vast and growing holiday filmography, it shouldn’t be difficult to find some that are overrated and others that are underrated….

Overrated: Die Hard (1988)

Look, it’s a really good action movie; you’ll get no argument from me on that point. But it’s really only a “Christmas” movie because it takes place around an office Christmas party. That’s it. Take away the holiday stuff, and the movie doesn’t lose anything at all. Trading Places (1983) takes place over the holidays, too – but no one is calling that a “Christmas” movie, are they….

Attempts to find “Christmas” themes or meanings in Die Hard are nothing more than weak justifications to watch it in December. Look, watch it whenever you want, OK? Just don’t call it a “Christmas” movie.

Underrated: The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)

While I maintain that Christmas doesn’t really begin until Nick and Nora Charles serve the nuts, The Thin Man (1934) is another one of those movies that take place over the holidays without having anything in the story that’s Christmas-related.

Based on a Damon Runyon story, The Lemon Drop Kid is definitely and obviously Christmas-related. Bob Hope plays a genial low-level con man and huckster who finds himself owing a LOT of money to a mob boss. He’s given one month to cough up the cash – or else. Since that one month happens to be December, Hope comes up with the idea of creating a fake charity to wheedle enough pocket change out of New York City pedestrians to save his neck. Hijinks ensue. The whole scheme is utterly improbable – but Hope’s charm and a good supporting cast carry you through.

It would (and should) have been better known as a holiday film, but various production and distribution delays had it miss the 1950 holiday season – it was released in March 1951 (with the appropriate change in marketing).

The delay also meant that Bing Crosby beat Hope to the punch (typical…..) with a December 1950 release of a now-classic song that was featured prominently in the movie: