10 Classic Christmas Films That Actually Came Out In The Summer

Bing Crosby's White Christmas remains by some margin the biggest selling Christmas song of all time, indeed the biggest selling song of any type. And, sure enough, the Crosby-starring film of the same name came out in time for Christmas (sort of) with an October 1954 release.

White Christmas the song is not, however, taken from White Christmas the film. Rather it is the other way round; the film produced to take advantage of the song's existent popularity.

The song White Christmas actually originates in the movie Crosby-Fred Astaire vehicle Holiday Inn, released twelve years before the White Christmas film to greater acclaim and box office success.

Much like Bridget Jones, Holiday Inn's central conceit means that its plot runs through the whole year rather than just Christmas. But the whole Holiday Inn concept originates in Christmas scenes at the start of the movie and the story climaxes at Christmas too, not to mention the memorable presence of that signature song.

It's clearly a Christmas movie, whatever its release in early August 1942 might say. In fact, the film's plot jumps straight from July 4th to Thanksgiving in November, so there's not even any August in it.