There’s a line in “Miracle on 34th Street” in which lawyer Fred Gailey, who shares an apartment with Kris Kringle, tells Santa Claus that he really wanted to know the answer to a question that has always puzzled people: Sleeps Santa Claus with you? his whiskers outside or inside the blanket?
“Outside,” Kris replies. “Cold air makes them grow.”
While this great question is answered, there is another one that has been floating around for some time.
Is “Die Hard” a Christmas movie?
I think there are all kinds of arguments for the positive. It’s about John McClane going to visit his family for Christmas. The action even takes place during a Christmas Eve party. Perhaps most importantly, it also includes the main character’s redemption and a reunion with his wife as they realize again how much they love each other. There’s even some redemption for the supporting character of Reginald VelJohnson’s Al, the police officer who was upset about his previous shooting incident. Now he shoots again, this time to save McClane’s life. Fittingly, redemption is a central theme of Christmas films.
However, Garland, Texas Mayor Scott LeMay took it to another level to make the point. He made a video that went viral, posted on the city’s YouTube and Facebook accounts, in which he recreated McClane’s classic vent scene. The city insisted on the Facebook account that it was a Christmas film. LeMay pulls this off quite well, and he even does a great impersonation of Bruce Willis’ voice. That’s pretty awesome.
“Come down to City Hall,” he said as he crawled through the “shaft” (actually Home Depot boxes attached to each other) with his lighter on. “We come together. It’ll be fun.”
“Are you in there?” asks an employee.
“NO?” he says.
Then she scolds him: “Remember when we said, ‘Die hard?'”
“But it’s a Christmas movie, Courtney,” LeMay replies. “I’m telling you.”
“No, die hard!” Courtney insists. “Just do it normally!”
“Go away!” he chastises her.
“All of us here in the city of Garland wish you a happy holiday and an amazing 2025. And yay…” At this point he paused because he didn’t want to say the word “that” comes next from the film.
Then comes a “Happy Holidays” from the town of Garland and the Christmas carol “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!” That’s pretty entertaining. He sounds like a rock mayor, and his meetings must be fun. He definitely nailed the voice and attitude of Bruce Willis. The most popular X post with the clip had almost 2 million views. You can see he looks pretty dead:
💯💯😉💯💯 pic.twitter.com/cXLtrX6GeK
– Checkered Past 🇺🇲🫡🇺🇲 (@FoldenWilliam) December 25, 2024
One can assume that he is a Republican, even though they conduct the mayoral elections as a non-partisan affair. The only drawback was that he should have said “Merry Christmas” because that’s what he meant. The city posted “Merry Christmas” on its X account.
READ MORE: A Christmas Story: A Testament to Timeless Values
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