Throwback Thursday Looks at Gayer Christmas Movies

Okay, let's face it. While the religious right lives under the constant delusion that the holidays are all about them and their, well, delusions, there's a lot that's pretty darn gay about Christmas. Specific elements are for another post, but for this Throwback Thursday, yer boy Hank here is going to look specifically at movies that lean into the gay. And while pretty much any Christmas movie is "kinda gay," there are some that purposefully build in, or rest solely on, queer content. So let's take a look at just a few stand-outs, shall we?

Carol (2015)

Let's get the serious (and best) film out of the way. This award-winner directed by out gay director Todd Haynes stars Cate Blanchett and Mara Rooney (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) as two women who embark on an illicit and quietly passionate love affair in the 1950's. Based on the 1952 novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (Strangers On a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley) it's a gorgeous film that takes place over the Christmas holiday in 1952 Manhattan. This movie is so good it'll have you believing two things: in the burgeoning love between these two women, and that Cincinnati can play the part of Manhattan. It was up for six Academy Awards and the Palm d'Or at Cannes where it received a ten-minute standing ovation, and Rooney won a Best Actress award. The British Film Institute named it the best LGBT film of all time and the BBC named it one of the greatest films of the 21st century.

Single All the Way (2021)

"The gays just know how to do stuff!" If you're going to include the gays in your holiday movie, best to just play to the rafters and see what lands. And that's exactly what Netflix did with this adorable venture that has gay all over it! Starring out actors like Michael Urie (Ugly Betty) , Philemon Chambers, and Luke MacFarlane (Bros), it also stars people the gays love like Kathy Najimi (Sister Act) and Jennifer Coolidge (White Lotus.) Urie has to return to his loving and accepting small-town family from the sanctuary of New York. The only problem is he's still single, a problem his family wants to rectify. He convinces his best friend Chambers to come with as his BF. This falls by the wayside when his mom (Najimy) sets him on a blind date with local hottie MacFarlane. But what happens when Chambers finds himself falling for real? It's truly a warm-hearted rom-com for everyone in the Hallmark tradition without having to actually be a Hallmark movie!

The Bitch Who Stole Christmas (2021)...

...is terrible. Hey, they can't all be warm chestnuts on a cold winter's night. Some are going to be lumps of coal! But when you got Ru Paul and over twenty of her drag queens, judges, Michelle Visage, and a villainous plotline that threatens the very existence of Christmas, there's gotta be something fun in this, right? Okay, just ignore that this gaggiest of drag holiday movies plays like one of those acting competitions you see on Drag Race. And ignore the rampant use of green screen technology. Oh, also ignore the fact that the main romance in all this is between cis straight characters (?!). After all that, gather your friends, have some holiday drinks, and MST3K the crap out of this!

It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)

Okay so maybe this recently released horror-comedy mashup send-up of the 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life isn't really all that gay. Like, at all, when it comes to its plot. But what is gay about it is the high level of camp, and we're all in for that! Our community loves horror films. And more than horror films, we love sacrificing society's sacred cows. And what better way to turn Christmas on its sanctimonious ear than to slash at it with a butcher knife! They took the most sacred of holiday movies and messed with it big time in this tale of a young woman who, after living through a few murders in town enacted by a greedy developer, wishes for her death on a bridge. Enter the alternative universe of It's a Wonderful Life! Lots more murders happen with blood-splattering glee, and she realizes her life had meaning after all! It's gory fun starring cutie-pies Joel McHale and Justin Long among others.

Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (1987)

Yes, the link above is for the entire special which aired between seasons 2 and 3 of Pee Wee's Playhouse. While not containing specifically gay content...c'mon. I mean, c'mon! Ya got Pee Wee, Charo, the Del Rubio Triplets, KD Lang, Little Richard and Grace Friggin' Jones in a breastplate! Among many other visitors to the playhouse. It's the gayest holiday special ever committed to a film that didn't include Cher.

Female Trouble (1974)

While it's not a Christmas movie, per se, it has without a doubt one of the greatest Christmas scenes ever put on film. Directed by John Waters and starring his stalwart drag star Divine, it tells the tender tale of Dawn Davenport and her rise to criminal fame. The titular scene takes place on a Christmas morn when Dawn's parents rue the day they didn't give their daughter her beloved cha-cha heels! It may not be quite as twisted as his 1972 film Pink Flamingos, but it's twisted enough to entwine a theme of "crime is beauty" derived from Waters's visit with the imprisoned Charles Manson murderer Charles "Tex" Watson.

"These aren't cha-cha heels!"

Need more Christmas movies, gay or not? Gay film critic Alonso Duralde is an unapologetic Hallmark nut, but loves the quality stuff too! He literally wrote the book on it: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas. 

What's your favorite queer Christmas movie?

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