Ho ho ho indeed! Sometimes you just want to watch a holiday-themed movie that also happens to have some graphic violence as well.
Hey, we don’t judge here, we’re just gonna serve up some violent Christmas movies with great care so that you can get your holiday kicks without trying to set Santa on fire. (Honestly, we’re surprised that hasn’t happened more often.)
So here they are: six of the best Christmas movies with violent elements that we were able to find. There are plenty more out there, but it doesn’t take long to wind up in long lists of terribly subpar B-movies that are about as fun to watch as they are to eat.
These movies here really are the cream of the crop, with maybe one exception. We’ll let you guess which one that is.
Fire up the blinking LEDs and pull out the tray of mangled gingerbread cookies you left in the oven for too long– it’s time to get started.
Die Hard (1988)
Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It is, believe us, even if, technically, you could pull out the holiday elements and it would still be basically the same movie.
Although, the holidays were no doubt the reason behind the whole visit to LA, so maybe the story wouldn’t have happened at all had it not been the holiday season. Food for thought.
If you haven’t ever heard of Die Hard, well, where have you been? Just wait until you hear about this whole internet thing. Is this the first website you’ve ever visited? We’re honored. Feel free to stick around, we’ve got all kinds of good stuff on here.
Anyway, this is a movie about a cop who happens to find himself in a big giant LA building (it’s still there, by the way, over in Century City) during a major hostage crisis. Thankfully, he hasn’t been taken hostage, but the love of his life has, along with a bunch of other innocent people who don’t deserve to die so close to the holidays.
This cop-man then proceeds to try his best to get the whole situation sorted out basically on his own, with some occasional support from another cop down on the ground. It’s just a great action movie, and many people in fact consider it to be one of the best action movies ever made.
We don’t know if we can agree with all that, but it’s still an excellent flick, and it’s definitely a violent Christmas movie.
Gremlins (1984)
This is a very cozy movie, despite all the creature-based havoc that’s being wrought on this idyllic small American town.
Gremlins is one of the most famous creature movies of the 80s, and the original actually feels relatively restrained when compared against its unwieldy sequel.
A mysterious pet causes major problems when it’s been accidentally mistreated, and from that point on it’s basically a snowball effect. [Pause for laughter.]
With Steven Spielberg in the producer’s chair, this movie is funny and weird while still being somewhat heartfelt and safe for family viewing.
The violence stays pretty goofy, but it is there, so don’t go in expecting every character to be just fine.
Krampus (2015)
There are a whole lot of Krampus movies out there. He’s a folklore figure who’s basically the anti-Santa, which is very fun to say out loud.
But this Krampus movie from 2015 is easy to identify via its simple name. It doesn’t have some cringey subtitle, it’s just Krampus.
It’s also probably the only quality Krampus movie to ever be released, with some real talent in its director and its cast, which is kind of star-studded.
In addition to being a very Christmasy movie, Krampus is also a horror-comedy, riding the line between the two quite well.
If you can find a copy to watch, Krampus is absolutely worth checking out.
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Ok, we had to have at least one B-movie on our list of violent Christmas movies, and in the end we included two, so if this kind of thing happens to be your taste, you’re in luck.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is actually a full series of schlocky B-movies that focus on holiday-themed horror.
Well, calling them horror movies probably isn’t the most accurate statement. They’re supposed to be horror movies, and they were certainly intended to be, but for modern viewers, it’s best to think of these as comedies.
This is an incredibly funny movie, probably unintentionally, and its sequels can be even more entertaining in this regard.
It should be easy enough to find this movie available for streaming online, though we hesitate to mention specific services that currently offer it since that’s likely to change in the near future.
Into the Dark: Pokka! (2018)
Ok, perhaps the cheapest movie on our list, Pokka! is a movie that’s part of the Blumhouse Into the Dark series, which isn’t really a series at all, or even really an anthology.
Into the Dark is basically just branding for a whole bunch of movies that Blumhouse has released, and all of them were made for very little money. Very little money.
Don’t get us wrong: they don’t exactly look like movies shot by your neighbor in their backyard with an early-2000s handycam, but they’re not the flashiest movies out there.
These are stripped-down movies with actors you’ve never heard of who are just trying to get their name out there.
With all that said, the premise of this movie is a fantastic fit for the holiday season, as it’s centered around the hottest toy of the holiday season, named Pokka.
A man who’s been hired to portray Pokka wearing a big giant mascot suit soon learns that there are some serious downsides to the job, including some potential demonic possession, but hey, every job has its drawbacks.
Home Alone (1990)
Well, here we are, the last violent Christmas movie on our list. It’s Home Alone, an all-time classic that we here at GL actually don’t care for all that much. It’s fine, but people love this movie a great deal and we certainly respect that.
A little boy defends his family home from clumsy robbers, and he does so using some wacky inventions and contraptions, many of which, in real life, would probably kill someone.
Thankfully, the robbers don’t suffer realistic consequences from these horrifying devices, so it stays very family-friendly throughout.
Glitterati*Lobotomy 