The Ultimate Christmas Action Movie, According to TFB Readers

Christmas movies and gun-heavy action seem like they would go together like strawberries and mustard, but there is a long tradition of Christmas-themed action movies. From Bruce Willis crawling through air ducts to Mel Gibson's suicidal cop finding his will to live, some of the most memorable holiday films feature serious firepower alongside the tinsel and eggnog.

Over the past week on TFB’s X account, we ran a four-round tournament asking TFB readers to crown the ultimate gun-themed Christmas movie. We started with eight contenders and let you narrow it down through head-to-head voting across 1,146 total votes.

Here's how they ranked, from bottom to top.

8. Reindeer Games

Ben Affleck's 2000 casino heist film barely registered in Round 1, pulling just 6.9% of 218 votes. The movie follows an ex-con who gets caught up in a Christmas Eve casino robbery, and while it's got some decent action sequences, it never quite landed with audiences. TFB readers apparently agreed—this one was eliminated immediately.

To be fair, Reindeer Games faced two Mel Gibson flicks, Lethal Weapon and Fatman, right out of the gate, which is a tough draw. But 6.9% suggests most readers either haven't seen it or don't remember it fondly enough to vote for it.

7. Violent Night

David Harbour's 2022 blood-soaked Santa movie seemed like it would resonate with gun people. The premise, a badass Santa Claus fighting off mercenaries during a home invasion, is basically Die Hard meets Home Alone with actual violence instead of cartoon physics.

It got just 8.4% in Round 2 against Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight. That's disappointing considering the film features solid tactical action and unapologetic gunfighting. Maybe it's too recent, or maybe the absurd premise works better in theory than in execution. Either way, voters weren't feeling it.

6. Fatman

Mel Gibson as a jaded, gun-toting Santa defending his North Pole workshop from a hitman hired by a spoiled kid who got coal for Christmas. It's exactly as weird as it sounds. It’s one of my Christmas guilty pleasures. Fatman is no masterpiece, but an extra grizzled Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins chewing up the scenery as usual make for a quirky but fun ride with a surprising amount of heart.

Fatman pulled 18.3% in Round 1—respectable enough to avoid total embarrassment, but not enough to advance past Lethal Weapon's 74.8%. The movie's got some interesting ideas about Santa as a struggling small business owner dealing with military contracts to stay afloat, but it never quite commits to being either a dark comedy or a straight action film.

It’s worth at least one watch, but this one was always going to be a curiosity rather than a serious contender.

5. First Blood

Here's where things get interesting. First Blood is a legitimately great action film, and one of Stallone’s best, with serious themes about PTSD and how America treated Vietnam veterans. The fact that it takes place during Christmas in the Pacific Northwest town of Hope, Washington, adds to the film's cold, isolated atmosphere.

And yet it got just 18.5% in Round 3, finishing dead last against Lethal Weapon and A Christmas Story.

Why? Probably because while First Blood happens to take place at Christmas, the holiday doesn't actually matter to the story. You could set it in July, and nothing would change. Compare that to Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, where Christmas is woven into the plot and themes, and you can see why readers didn't consider this a "Christmas movie" despite the timing.

Still, 18.5% feels low for what's objectively one of the best action films of the 1980s.

4. The Long Kiss Goodnight

Geena Davis as an amnesiac schoolteacher who discovers she's actually a highly trained CIA assassin, with Samuel L. Jackson as her private investigator sidekick. The film takes place during Christmas and features some genuinely impressive action sequences.

It pulled 13.4% in Round 2, which put it ahead of Violent Night but well behind Lethal Weapon's 78.2%. The Long Kiss Goodnight deserves credit for being one of the few action films where the female lead actually looks competent handling firearms—Davis trained extensively, and it shows.

The problem is that, outside of action film enthusiasts, not many people remember this 1996 film. It flopped at the box office and has mostly been forgotten, despite being a solid Shane Black script with good action choreography. Gun people appreciate it, but nostalgia wins elections, and The Long Kiss Goodnight doesn't have that.

3. Lethal Weapon

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover's buddy cop classic dominated the early rounds, taking 74.8% in Round 1 and 78.2% in Round 2. It looked unstoppable until Round 3, where it tied with our next film at 40.7% split across 135 votes.

Unlike some of the others here, Lethal Weapon is a legitimate Christmas movie. The entire film takes place during the holidays, from the opening suicide jump from a balcony decorated with Christmas lights in the backdrop of the final showdown. Christmas is a key background element here, as it plays into Riggs' suicidal depression and eventual redemption through found family with Murtaugh.

The action holds up, the chemistry between Gibson and Glover is genuine, and it launched a franchise that defined the buddy cop genre for a generation.

Lethal Weapon is still a great Christmas movie. It's just not the Christmas movie.

2. A Christmas Story

This is the surprise of the tournament. A family film about a kid in 1940s Indiana desperately wanting "an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle" with "a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time" tied Lethal Weapon in Round 3 in a 135-vote nail-biter.

Even in the finals, it pulled 28.9% of 674 votes—nearly one in three readers choosing Ralphie Parker's BB gun over tactical action films.

Why did A Christmas Story do so well? Because it's actually about wanting a gun for Christmas, which is more on-brand for TFB readers than Hollywood action films will ever be. Every gun owner remembers their first firearm. For many of us, that was a BB gun or .22 rifle, not some tactical operator setup.

The film captures that pure, obsessive desire to own a specific gun perfectly. Ralphie researches it, dreams about it, schemes to convince his parents, and imagines scenarios where he'll use it. That's exactly what gun people do, whether we're 8 years old wanting a BB gun or 40 years old wanting a suppressed SBR.

Plus, the "you'll shoot your eye out" refrain is something every gun owner has heard some version of from concerned relatives. A Christmas Story gets gun culture in a way most films don't, even if it's just a Red Ryder BB gun.

The fact that it came in second place, ahead of Lethal Weapon in the finals, says something about what TFB readers value. Sometimes authenticity beats explosions.

1. Die Hard

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? It’s been a hot topic of debate for years. Bruce Willis says no. Macaulay Culkin says no. But TFB readers answer with an astounding YES, proving that often the art takes on a life separate from the artist.

Beyond the Christmas setting, Die Hard is just a masterclass in action filmmaking. Bruce Willis sells McClane as an everyman cop who's genuinely outmatched and scared but pushes through anyway. The practical effects and stunts hold up nearly 40 years later. The terrorists have actual personalities and motivations. And McClane's increasingly desperate improvisation—crawling through air ducts, walking on broken glass, using C4-laced office chairs as weapons—feels earned rather than superheroic.

From a firearms perspective, Die Hard shows the consequences of gunfights in ways most action films don't. McClane gets hurt, runs out of ammo, and has to scavenge weapons from enemies. He's not magically accurate or indestructible. That realism makes the action feel grounded even when the scenario is absurd.

Bruce Willis crawling through air ducts with a Beretta 92F beats everything else, and it's not particularly close.

What This Tournament Revealed

Die Hard's victory was never in doubt once it entered the bracket, but the journey told us something about what gun enthusiasts value in Christmas movies.

We appreciate serious action films with practical effects and realistic consequences. We respect firearms competence on screen, even in actors. But we also appreciate authenticity and nostalgia. A Christmas Story's second-place finish proves that a kid wanting a BB gun resonates more than some Hollywood mercenaries.

Lethal Weapon showed that it has real staying power as a Christmas tradition, even if it can't touch Die Hard. And First Blood's poor showing suggests that just because a movie takes place on Christmas doesn't automatically make it a "Christmas movie" in viewers' minds. The holiday needs to actually matter to the story.

Thanks to everyone who voted across all four rounds. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go watch Bruce Willis crawl through some air ducts.

Yippee-ki-yay and Merry Christmas.