There's no need to debate whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie when the movie itself already answers the question in the opening scene.

First, the positives. Die Hard is a movie about a New York cop defeating a gang of thieves masquerading as terrorists on Christmas Eve. That’s the plot. Which isn’t very jolly, but we’ll let that slide.

The lesson we all should take away from “Die Hard,” the ultimate Christmas movie? Our families and relationships matter and are worth fighting for.

This meant that in Bruce Willis ’ Die Hard, Gruber was the protagonist because he set everything in motion. The character was the one who devised the robbery plan, and without it, John McClane’s narrative would have been different. De Souza advised that “ if you’re doing genre, the protagonist is the villain .”

Debating about whether or not the original Die Hard is a Christmas movie only proves the point that it totally is. Yes, the man himself, Bruce Willis has (jokingly) said Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie,

Story' star Peter Billingsley tells PEOPLE how he showed filmmaker Jan de Bont how ‘Die Hard’ has the holiday spirit