The Christmas season is in full force and one of the best parts of Christmas is watching classic movies and series. These programs can range from the most intense movies and series such as Die Hard to new hits such as Hawkeye, we look back at the 7 Best Non-Christmas Christmas movies and series.
Hawkeye
We start the list with the most recent action series that happened during Christmas but wasn’t all about Christmas.
Hawkeye features Clint Barton finally coming to his senses and look back at everything that has happened to him and his friends and family in the MCU. He’s getting over the loss of Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow and learning to be with his family again.
However, his actions during the “blip” don’t come without consequences. Due to a series of unfortunate events, a young fan of his named Kate Bishop stumbles upon his old Ronin suit, and the rest of the series rolls from there.
One of the biggest questions that kept appearing was whether Clint would ever make it home for Christmas. Will he ever move on from the past and be with his family again?
You’ll have to watch the series to find out.
Hawkeye is currently streaming on Disney Plus (availability varies per market)
Shazam!
What can I say about Shazam? It’s personally one of the most exciting movies in the DCEU. After the disappointment of Joss Whedon’s Justice League, the DC movies continued to be an embarrassment for moviegoers and superhero fans alike.
That failure will be redeemed with the success of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!
Shazam, or Captain Marvel for the older audience, was a character from Fawcett Comics that was so popular in the 1940s that it even surpassed Superman in popularity!
However, a lawsuit from DC could lead to Fawcett eventually selling the character to DC Comics and Captain Marvel would slowly fade into obscurity.
Shazam! was an opportunity to reintroduce these classic characters to a whole new audience and boy did Sandberg co. do that and more!
We all know that Billy Batson is an orphaned boy who never found a place in life until he was adopted by this one family with kids of different backgrounds.
One day after school he escapes a bunch of bullies and ends up on a train that leads him to the wizard Shazam and the main plot of the movie begins.
Shazam! is a shonen story before the shonen manga was really mainstream with Billy Batson transforming into a hero when he shouts “Shazam!”
We also got to know more about his family in the movie which was based on Geoff Johns’ New 52 version. And let me tell you, there is a lot of emphasis on family here. Almost as much as the Fast and Furious movies.
There is one memorable scene that stands out to this day and it’s not necessarily about Christmas but when Billy finds the address to his real mom’s place. Sadly, Billy’s own mom pretty much forgot about him. Add to the fact that Christmas is about being with family and you’ve got a really poor kid you feel terrible for.
Nobody deserves that, especially from their own parents.
Later on, Billy realizes that the family that truly loved him was already there and that’s what matters most for an orphaned kid who just wanted to be loved.
Shazam! is available on HBO Max and Netflix (availability varies per market
Iron Man 3
Tony Starks deals with PTSD over Christmas while losing sight of what made him Iron Man in the first place.
Iron Man 3’s plot starts on New Year’s Eve right in time during the holidays. Several personal attacks by the Mandarin and the Ten Rings would force Tony Stark to don an Iron Man suit once again, but he struggles to control the suit resulting in his crash landing somewhere in Tennessee.
Tony meets a young boy who has as much potential as himself when he was younger and gets the boy’s help to slowly become Iron Man again.
We don’t get much chatter about Christmas in this movie as the main focus is Tony becoming Iron Man again but a portion of the story does take place around Christmas time so this counts as a non-Christmas Christmas movie!
Currently streaming on Disney Plus (availability varies per market)
Die Hard
What can you even say about Die Hard? A divorced cop goes to LA to make amends with his wife and gets caught in a German terrorist coup.
You know how the rest of the story goes. Detective John McClane kicks ass and saves Christmas!
Jingle All The Way
Your everyday bodybuilder, furniture salesman dad just wants to buy a toy for his son on Christmas Eve to hopefully fix his failing relationship.
Okay. This is a cheat but you’ve got to give Arnold Schwarzenneger props for going beyond his repertoire in the 90s and doing a wide variety of comedies.
The best part is that he made it work!
Batman Returns
Poor Oswald Cobblepot is abandoned by society and is raised by Penguins. He plans to kill all first-born children of Gotham because it reminds him of being abandoned by his own family on Christmas.
Okay. Christmas was a part of the plot of Batman Returns but the main focus was on revenge. Penguin wanted revenge on the society that ditched him while Catwoman sought revenge on all the abusers she had faced.
There’s some chatter about Christmas but if you don’t want to be spoiled, I’ll let you watch this classic movie to see for yourself how good this Tim Burton movie is.
Batman Returns is available on HBO Max (availability varies per market)
Rocky IV
Rocky faces Ivan Drago in an unsanctioned match on Christmas Day after the death of Apollo Creed.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know much about the Rocky franchise but man does that theme rock. It’s one of the most inspring theme songs to work out to and you feel like you can do anything!
Rocky IV also showcased how a family is something that you should always value, with Adrian even flying to Russia just to support Rocky in his bout with the powerful Russian athlete.
And like any other Christmas movie that isn’t all about Christmas, Rocky IV still makes sure that you cherish your family.
Rocky IV is available to stream on Amazon (availability varies per market)
Well, that’s it for our list of 7 Non-Christmas Movies and Series. We hope you take the time to watch some of our picks this holiday season.
The Geeky Juans 