Based on a conversation with your buddy and mine, Mr. Ross Nover, we started hammering out the flicks that happen on or around Christmas, but aren’t actually about Christmas, persay.

With Christmas crashing into us a week from today, consider this a listing of movies worth marathoning this holiday season, once the non-stop combo of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story have sufficiently melted your brain.

The listing we generated is available after the cut, but feel free to leave your non traditional favorites in the comments.

Die Hard My personal favorite “non Christmas” Christmas film, Bruce Willis attempt to take out terrorists at the Nakatomi Building is set on Christmas.

Gremlins Gizmo was a christmas gift gone horribly wrong, so is there really a better way to celebrate the holiday than by watching monsters wreck a small town?

Die Hard 2: Die Harder The much unloved follow-up to Die Hard, changes the location to an airport, but retains the same date, giving you two classic McClaine adventures on one date.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang One of my favorite movies ever, it’s pretty easy to forget that Robert Downey’s character ends up in a mix of murder mystery drama and noir action in modern day Hollywood during the Christmas season.  Seeing Michelle Monaghan in a skimpy Santa outfit though, kinda unforgettable.

Love Actually The modern romantic comedy classic, this Brit film also takes place over the Christmas season.

Batman Returns Tim Burton’s second Bat-adventure, despite being a huge summer tentpole the year it was released, was actually built around the holiday season. Those “baubles” Max Schreck spoke about? Christmas gifts for Gotham.

Lethal Weapon Riggs & Murtaugh’s classic first adventure, again, spent around the holiday season.

Go The film with the least to do with Christmas on this list, a Pulp Fiction-esq tale of kids doing drugs and partying around Hollywood, takes place on Christmas Eve.

Diner My Baltimore heritage makes me have to include this. Barry Levitson’s classic flick about a group of Baltimore guys getting together in 1959 to reminisce about their childhood is set over the holiday season, even if the flashbacks are scattered about.

Rocky III Arguably the most crucial and important installment in the Rocky series (for the Lundgren alone), Rocky III is so pumped about Christmas, it sets the Balboa/Drago grudgematch on December 25th.  And isn’t that really what Christmas is all about?