We’ve all got our traditional Christmas movies - Miracle on 34th St, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol - those enduring classics that are every bit as crucial to the holiday season as gingerbread cookies, baked ham, and stringing popcorn and cranberries onto garlands which we don’t do anymore because that’s perfectly good food you’re wasting, mister. Don’t you know we’re in a recession?

After a while, movies like this barely even qualify as entertainment. They’re just background noise, part of the indefinable quality of the holiday season. They’re as present yet unobtrusive as the smell of spiced cider. Every once in a while, you just want something fresh and new. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Luckily, there are plenty of movies that feature the holidays, but aren’t just the same old boring fare. Here’s some of the best.

Die Hard

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and…evil Alan Rickman? There are a lot of reasons Die Hard is an action movie classic, and Rickman as the German terrorist Hans Gruber is about fifteen of them. The rest all involve Bruce Willis as John McClane, one of the silver screen’s most tough, resourceful, and completely unstoppable heroes.

He might be terrible at keeping his wife happy, but when it comes to keeping hostages alive at a Christmas party, nobody does it better. Everyone starts to crave a good shoot ‘em up after months of sappy holiday specials, and Die Hard is the cream of the crop.

The Ref

This movie culminates in the kind of family Christmas dinner that everyone secretly wants to have: the one where everyone just cuts loose and freaks out on each other and years of secret grievances come spilling out. The addition of a thief (played by Denis Leary) trying to pose as a marriage counselor in order to evade capture is just the icing on the cake.

The Ref is the kind of movie you might get if you put Woody Allen and The Coen Brothers into a blender, and it’s every bit as fun as that sounds. Leary and Kevin Spacey, who plays the patriarch of the troubled family, can turn a mediocre premise into a fantastic movie, and The Ref is a perfect example - overflowing with holiday cheer and bad will. Put the kids downstairs with a Disney movie, then gather with some brandy and enjoy this one with the family members you’re forced to pretend you like.

Gremlins

In addition to being the ultimate “be careful what you wish for” story, Gremlins is also a cautionary tale against buying your kid a new pet for Christmas without being absolutely 100% sure that he is ready to handle a new puppy or an adorable little creature that turns into a horrible demon if fed after midnight.

In these CGI days, the obvious puppet Mogwai might seem corny, but there’s a reason Gremlins is still a timeless horror/comedy classic: it’s fun. And let’s not forget that it was instrumental in the development of the PG-13 rating, which has allowed us all to enjoy the sort of fare that we might have otherwise had to wait until the tender age of 17 to see on screen.

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Trading Places

It’s one of those comedies that requires a large suspension of disbelief. I’m not sure if there’s an official “rich guys screwing around just because they can” genre of film, but if so, Trading Places is the perfect example.

You know the story: Eddie Murphy is taken off the streets and transformed into a cunning businessman simply by being placed in a position of responsibility; meanwhile, Dan Aykroyd is thrown out on the street and forced into homelessness and crime. Hilarity ensues! And it is actually pretty funny, although the message of “all rich people are terrible” is kind of heavy-handed. Still, nothing says Christmas like banding together with someone from a completely different background and proceeding to ruin the lives of a bunch of old rich white guys with no consciences.

Ghostbusters II

The Ghostbusters are disbanded, and the spirit of a vicious pirate is trying to take over the world through a haunted painting, using purple psychosomatic goo that is the creation of the combined hostility of all New York City. WHO YOU GONNA CALL? GHO - oh, right.

It takes some effort to get the team back together, but it’s worth it. I might be the only one who feels this way, but the reunion is more fun than the original. It has a sweet, genuine feel to it, with naturally-occurring humor instead of giant Stay-Puft Marshallow Men. There is a giant Statue of Liberty, but that’s an entirely different matter. Christmas is but a subtle backdrop to the story, but it ends on New Year’s, so a holiday movie it is!

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Bad Santa

There’s nothing quite like a bitter, alcoholic thief who poses as Santa Claus in order to rob mall safes on Christmas Eve. Billy Bob Thornton is a little too good at playing the part, which pits him against two untimely-deceased comics (John Ritter and Bernie Mac) who are determined to get rid of him.

Bad Santa forms an unlikely bond with an overweight, gullible kid who is asurprisingly tough little fighter. (This comes in handy when Santa is attacked by a crazy man at a bar.) I’m not sure what the Christmas lesson is here, other than possibly that you should befriend your local lonely kid and he might give you a place to crash when the police raid your motel room.

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