I love cars and I also love holiday movies, whether they be old standbys like White Christmas or more modern films like Four Christmases. Just last week I curled up on the couch with my kiddo and, at her request, watched Elf. Then I watched Elf again.
Because I’m a car person I can’t help but notice every car in every film, like a living and breathing IMCDB. Holiday films tend to include a lot of vehicles as holiday films often involve a lot of traveling. There’s one particular one I’m not going to mention because it’s slightly too obvious, but it involves travel and you are welcome to choose it.
The debate over whether or not Die Hard is technically a Christmas movie is the most cliché argument one can imagine, but it ends with “Let it Snow” so I’m going to say it is a Christmas movie. In that vein, there are a number of excellent vehicles to choose from, but my absolute favorite has to be limo driver Argyle’s 1986 Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine.
Here’s how the Die Hard Fandom page describes it:
A variant of the Lincoln Town Car, the first generation stretched limousine has a long body, four-wheel drive, two dual headlights, and three glass windows on both sides. It is also equipped with a CD player, CB radio, full bar, a telephone (as shown when Argyle speaks to McClane), VHS player, and a television.
This is an extremely ’80s car and represents a kind of late Cold War American aesthetic that died with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the introduction of the 2nd generation Ford Taurus. So that’s my call. What about you? What’s your favorite holiday film car?
Top photo: 20th Century Studios
My favorite is definitely the dodge omni (or is it a horizon?) that the pizza guy drives in Home Alone
If just because I’m currently watching Elf for like the 75th time this year (kid is a Santa enthusiast), there’s an incredibly small detail where in several scenes, Walter has a Cadillac brochure on his desk,as a suggestion he’s preoccupied with something other than his job. I imagine he was shopping for a DTS.
From Scrooged, the cab that the ghost of Christmas past drives/haunts. “Go back to Jersey!”
I’ll go out on a limb here and say the old Plymouth police cruiser, walton Goggins drives in Fatman. Also a sweet story about why he drives it, in an otherwise not at all great movie. A bit of fun here and there, so it IS watchable.
For me it’s a toss up between the front wheel drive sleigh, the Winnebago with full shitter, and the burned out Lebaron convertible.
However a classic for me is Dead End. Definitely a Christmas movie. The 84 Jeep Wagoneer XJ with woodgrain. Compared to the Cherokee, those Wagoneers weren’t all that common even back then.
Gotta say the red Dodge Challenger in The Christmas Chronicles. If you haven’t seen it yet, I think it’s an instant Holliday classic. Kurt Russel plays an excellent Santa.
Also, his sleigh is pretty bad-ass. Even better than the one in Elf
On Netflix. Highly recommended.
I’m changing my mind. My favorite has to be the beater Impala hero car from the parking lot scene in Bad Santa.
The Aston Martin 007 drove. I remember seeing that show 3 times in a row as a young kid.
And it was over Christmas vacation, so that makes it a Christmas movie.
Fight me…
I hate Christmas.
“Who gives a fuck about Christmas?” Melania Trump.
The only thing she ever said that I agree with.
Now Kwanza? Hey, I’m there for that.
Christmas isn’t the problem. It’s the people that show up for it.
The van in Christmas Evil aka You Better Watch Out, the greatest killer Santa movie ever filmed.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWMwYjc0ZjQtMTMxNC00ZjY5LWFlNGQtZjg2ZWUzNjA1OGE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@._V1_.jpg
Jaguar XKE in a movie called “One Special Night” with Julie Andrews and James Garner. Julie Andrews gets the E-type stuck in the snow, James Garner helps out and the title of the movie happens.
It was great to see an old E used as regular transportation.
I’m taking “holiday” to mean all holidays and choosing Halloween as my holiday. Thus for my vehicle I am choosing the Sopwith Camel as flown by Snoopy as the WWI Flying Ace in It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX6BPKVZOmQ
There’s a Gremlin in my plow!
The Yellow Cab driven by the ghost of Christmas future in Scrooged.
Uncle Buck’s Mercury. I’m not sure if it can really be called a holiday movie and the car is not all that interesting. It’s more about how John Candy did such a good job of ‘owning’ the role with no shame.
I think this movie was set during Christmastime-ish, so this is a great nomination. That car was a character on its own.
Robert Downey Jr’s 1970 GTO in “Home For The Holidays” (1995) was pretty badass.
Contessa Theresa DiVicenzo’s (nee: Tracy Drako, aka: Tracy Bond) 1969 Mercury Cougar XR7 428 Cobrajet Convertible from the first post-Connery Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”
Because Diana Rigg did all her own driving and stunts.
Hadn’t thought of this as a holiday movie, but if it is, the “Big M” is perhaps the strongest contender among many—the ice racing Escorts and Minis, the sinister bad-guy black Heckflosse Mercedes, the Rolls Silver Shadow convertible (with power top that can be deployed at speed!), the Mercedes minibus, and of course Bond’s gorgeous DBS.
Its set during Christmastime in the Swiss Alps,and was released to theaters on December 18th, 1969, so I’d say it qualifies as much as Die Hard does
Plus the first appearance of Blofeld’s Mercedes-Benz (Grosser) 600.
When you think of it – There was a bit of a formula for cars in most early Bond films:
Good Guys: English & new American cars
Bad Guys: Rolls Royce & Grosser 600
Villan’s Henchmen: Mercedes-Benz Fintails, old American cars, or Japanese sedans – always black.
Bond Girls: sporty American or Japanese convertibles.
Of course the plot twists came when a Henchman (Oddjob) showed up in a new Dark Blue Lincoln (Goldfinger) or the guy who was bad (Drako was clearly bad – he had a new Rolls-Royce, and his men beat up & kidnapped Bond) wound up being good.
Ugh, why does OHMSS not play in this big Bond box set I just got, I wanna see
On the plus side, Live and Let Die works just fine, so I don’t actually need any other Bond movies.
Fun fact: I talked my mom into getting a Z4 ages ago because it was “like Bond’s car!” (Z8 in Goldeneye) and ended up buying it from her. It’s on jackstands out back, having sprung a Christmas leak from the Christmas coolant reservoir.
OK, not a movie, but a TV special, and it’s a model in a Rankin-Bass production, but you gotta love the track and ski equipped Model T pick-up that the mailman/narrator S.D. Kluger drives in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”!
I’m gonna go with Sam Wainwright’s Deusey, which at that time was the best car in the world hands-down. And paid for with US Government contracts for plexiglass aircraft canopies!
Another vote for this! With a sentimental vote for the Bailey’s trusty old 1923 Dodge. It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t just my favorite holiday movie, it’s my favorite movie, period. I’ve watched it every year for the past 25 years. Oh my family stopped watching it with me years ago, but that doesn’t matter.
Yeah you can feel George’s resentment in the scene when the Martinis move into Bailey Park, slamming the Dodge’s broken door repeatedly.