does anyone else feel like it's not really a christmas movie unless it's actually about christmas itself rather than being set at christmas.
i mean, when you think about it Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol and even Miracle on 34th Street aren't really about Christmas and kinda just use the holiday as a way to shoehorn their way into a buying frenzy to insure sales.
And yes of course I've read the original Christmas Carol but what you don't get is that ghost stories were kinda Charles Dickens' thing and basically A Christmas Carol is no different to any of his other stories other than being physically set AT Christmas.
These just all kinda prove we're gullible to tradition instigated by a marketting machine.
Saying that, if you want a movie that really "gets" Christmas then probably a really good example is Santa Claus The Movie.
Not oly is Christmas the main focus of the plot, it's cliche and chintsy and bright just like the holiday and it doesn't focus solely on an origin story but actually combats the idea of the holiday actually BEING a marketting frenzy ironically.
those are just my bits. i dunno.