Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year. It isn't just about presents, snow, and colorful lights but a transcendent spirit that reaches all. It's also the most prominent holiday in the media with hundreds of television specials and films dedicated to Christmas. From Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to special episodes of your favorite tv programs Christmas will be seen on televisions across the world. Just about every symbol be it Santa Clause, Jesus Christ, or Frosty the Snowman will feature in the month of December. But did you ever notice something about the majority of those specials? Despite how different each cartoon or film is they have all begun to rely on similar themes or tropes. The term trope has over time come to mean any commonly recurring device, motif, or cliche in works of fiction and there are more than a few which deal directly with Christmas. Unfortunately, we've seen a lot of the same ones used over and over again with slight differences in stories and - of course - characters. While their overuse can be detrimental many have found that they do tend to work quite well and make for great Christmas specials. We certainly can't deny that each has proven to be incredibly entertaining. In the spirit of the holiday here are five of the most common - and most often overused - Christmas tropes in television and film.
Honorable mention: It's a Wonderful Life. One of the most beloved Christmas films of all time the plot of It's a Wonderful Life has been adapted and parodied in many forms. Despite the large number of television episodes that have borrowed from the film most of them don't actually take place on Christmas. The film has gone above and beyond simply being a Christmas movie and this is apparent in the way it is parodied. For this reason alone we honor it with this mention.