Is the iconic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally a Christmas movie, or does it just have Christmas elements? Written by Sleepless in Seattle’s Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, When Harry Met Sally has been argued as the best romantic comedy of all time since its release in 1989. The movie follows Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Top Gun‘s Meg Ryan), who meet several times over the years in different settings before deciding they’ll just be friends – even if Harry says it’s impossible for men and women to be friends. While this setup works for a while, Harry and Sally eventually realize their feelings for one another, making their friendship much more complicated.

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Over the years, When Harry Met Sally has been subject to a holiday debate known to many other genre-bending movies. The movie clearly features elements of Christmas movies and even features the main characters at Christmas time, not once but twice, so is it really a Christmas movie? The answer is complicated and calls back to the most iconic “is it a Christmas movie” debate of all time with Die Hard’s identity as a Christmas action movie or an action movie conveniently set around the Christmas holiday. Most Christmas movies love falling under either comedy, drama, or romantic-comedy, so it makes it even more difficult for When Harry Met Sally.

When Harry Met Sally is much more of a Fall to early-Winter movie while not really having any allegiance to a specific holiday for its romantic setting yet maintaining a Christmas-like sweater weather aesthetic. Harry and Sally are seen picking out and festively putting up a Christmas tree. Still, their romantic reconciliation isn’t even on Christmas or Christmas Eve, so it doesn’t really count as a pure traditional Christmas movie. To truly get the “Christmas movie” categorization, the holiday would have to play a prominent role in the movie’s plot and overall themes. There could be more of an argument for Reiner’s movie being a New Year’s Eve movie since that’s the night they truly become a couple, and their significant will-they-won’t-they storyline is fulfilled.

Aside from the intertwining stories holiday movie New Year’s Eve from Garry Marshall, there’s not really a larger, specific category for New Year’s movies. New Year’s movies tend to be wrapped in with Christmas movies because they’re less than a week after the major holiday and contain similar themes and ambiance. Two of the most important nights for When Harry Met Sally’s romantic storyline takes place on New Year’s Eve: 1987, when Harry and Sally first realize they’re attracted to each other, and the next year when they reconcile and become a couple. With the popular romantic comedy’s recurrent late-December setting for its important moments, When Harry Met Sally is clearly a holiday movie, but it’s closer to a Christmas-New Year’s hybrid than just a Christmas movie.

New Year’s Eve is clearly more instrumental to their relationship, but the two Christmas montages are also important in showing how lonely and lost Harry and Sally are without one another, with a classic Christmas song underscoring each scene. It’s hard not to put When Harry Met Sally into the Christmas movie category when it shows a montage of New York City at Christmas with snow all around and the couple shopping for trees. That said, at the end of the day, it’s more of a romantic comedy with Christmas elements than a true Christmas movie. If Harry and Sally realize they are in love with one another and make up on Christmas or Christmas Eve, it would be a different story. At least without the rom-com being a full Christmas movie, fans can feel better about rewatching When Harry Met Sally year-round.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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