Reddit Crowns Trading Places As Its Favorite Unofficial Christmas Movie

Many people believe that Christmas is a time for giving. However when analyzing the plot of "Trading Places," on the surface, the theme appears to be more about taking. Louis's life is basically swiped from him by the Dukes' childish bet, while Valentine takes as much as he can out of this sudden opportunity. However, many of the people who put this on the top of their favorite Christmas movies list can see the holiday message that eventually comes out of this comedy. That is, learning to appreciate the things that are more important than money, like family and friends. 

Of course, there is some direct connection to Christmas in the movie. The story does take place over Christmas and also includes a hilarious scene where Aykroyd's Louis crashes a swanky party, drunk and dressed as Santa. U/dustlesswalnut is one of the many Reddit users who can see this connection when he commented with, "I can't count the number of times I watched this during Christmas breaks from school on Comedy Central."  The discussion continued with users like u/Xenoguro who proclaimed, "seriously my favorite Christmas movie and maybe in my top 5 of all time." 

Reddit wasn't the only place where fans crowned "Trading Places" as their favorite holiday film, as the same discussion expanded on YouTube. "I consider this a Christmas movie and it's played about 5 times a year every November and December, great movie," wrote @humbked9256. @Magicmike5003 also points out how the movie impressively overcame one important non-Christmas fact when commenting, "Funny, the movie timeline is around Christmas, but the film was actually released in the summer of 83."