History Main / ChristmasMiracle

* The 2013 ChristmasEpisode of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' has this [[spoiler:when the Nerd learns that Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} published ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndVenomMaximumCarnage''. For those not in the know, LJN was infamous for cranking out crappy [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]], and ''Maximum Carnage'' [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames may just be an exception to that.]]

* The 2013 ChristmasEpisode of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' has this [[spoiler:when the Nerd learns that Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} published ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndVenomMaximumCarnage''. For those not in the know, LJN was infamous for cranking out crappy [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]], and ''Maximum Carnage'' may just be an exception to that.]]

** The fandom also jokingly claims that Powell shooting Karl in order to save John [=McClane=]'s life (despite having trauma related to pulling a gun on anyone from having accidentally shot a child previously) is a Christmas miracle in order for ''Die Hard‘’ to technically qualify as a Christmas movie (since it takes place on Christmas).

* In the book ''Christmas's legends'' by Georges Lenôtre, ''Branche d'or'' ("Golden branch") is a novel BasedOnATrueStory. In France in December 1795 (and during the UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution), a bunch of republicans soldiers capture a "chouan" or royalist [[LaResistance resistant]], nicknamed Golden branch. They make no mystery that the guy will be executed by the very next day...Except [[DidIMentionItsChristmas it's Christmas night]], as bells ringing at midnight reminds them. The soldiers begin to feel nostalgic, and [[BruiserWithASoftCenter to tell to each other their Christmas childhood's memories.]] When asked if he have a family, Golden branch [[ManlyTears burst into tears]], and embarrassed soldiers finally let him go.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

* Subverted by the ''Series/ModernFamily'' fourth-season Christmas episode "The Old Man and the Tree". When Cameron hears that no gifts are available for the attendees at the Christmas event for the needy that he inadvertently took Lilly to, he grabs the ones that Mitchell has bought for Pepper's "The 12 Gays of Christmas" party the couple plan to attend that evening. [[HilarityEnsues They are spectacularly ill-suited to the occasion]].

* In ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', the protagonist is contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve and wishes he had never been born. The angel Clarence takes him into an alternate reality where he really was never born to show him that hundreds of people are better off because of him. He returns to his own reality with a renewed appreciation of his life.
* In ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'', the dad walks through fire and hell to get his son a Turbo Man action figure. But [[LittleDidIKnow little did he know]] that he somehow would end up in a Turbo Man rubber suit complete with jetpack. His son thinks this is more than enough.
* In the remake of ''Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet'', Susan tells Santa that what she really wants is a house, a father, and a brother. By Christmas morning, her mother has remarried, they've moved to a beautiful house, and Mom is quite possibly pregnant. The trope is averted slightly, in that she doesn't tell Santa these things with the expectation that he'll provide them (because at that point, she isn't completely sure he is who he says he is).

* Francie and Neely in ''Film/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'' also devise a Christmas miracle, including a scheme to obtain a huge tree for free -- by having it thrown at them.

** The fandom also jokingly claims that Powell shooting Karl in order to save John McClane's life (despite having trauma related to pulling a gun on anyone from having accidentally shot a child previously) is a Christmas miracle in order for ''Die Hard‘’ to technically qualify as a Christmas movie (since it takes place on Christmas).

* In ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', the protagonist is contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve and wishes he had never been born. The angel Clarence takes him into an alternate reality where he really was never born to show him that hundreds of people are better off because of him.

* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', and all the variations thereof.

->'''Bart:''' Aw come on, Dad. This could be the miracle that saves the Simpsons' Christmas. If TV has taught me anything, it's that miracles always happen to poor kids at Christmas. It happened to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Tiny Tim]], it happened to [[WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas Charlie Brown]], it happened to WesternAnimation/{{The Smurfs|1981}}, and it's going to happen to us!\\

* While ''Series/DoctorWho'' Christmas specials ''tend'' to result in death, one way or another, the 2011 one "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardobe" gave a rare EverybodyLives by [[spoiler: saving the father who [[NeverFoundTheBody "died"]] at the beginning.]]
** This trope also turns up in [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], the Twelfth Doctor's final episode: [[spoiler: The Doctor moves the moment of the Captain's standoff with a German soldier in the trenches of World War I a few hours ahead...so that it can be interrupted by the real life, '''human''' miracle of the legendary Christmas Truce, saving both men's lives. Also counts as an Everybody Lives situation aside from the metaphorical deaths of the Doctors when each regenerates]].

* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk and the Miracle" has a version of one. In the episode, people in San Francisco are drawn to a monastery's fountain after a mysterious picture of it and the message '''DRINK''' is found on their doors. They obey the message, and any physical ailments they have are cured. This includes Stottlemeyer's bad back, to the point that he joins the monastery. [[spoiler: Monk and Natalie get him back, explaining that the KillerOfTheWeek was a pharmacist who couldn't risk the fountain being excavated during renovation. Everyone would've found out he killed his business partner nine years earlier because he buried the body on the renovation site. His solution? Fabricate a miracle by writing phony prescriptions.]]

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

* The 2013 ChristmasEpisode of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' has this [[spoiler: when the Nerd learns that Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} published ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndVenomMaximumCarnage''. For those not in the know, LJN was infamous for cranking out crappy [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]], and ''Maximum Carnage'' may just be an exception to that.]]

Basically, a ChristmasMiracle is when [[DeusExMachina some highly unlikely stroke of good fortune]] comes to the characters in the time where [[DarkestHour they need it most,]] simply through the magic of Christmas (if the term "magic of Christmas" is literal, see SpecialOccasionsAreMagic). [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane May be implied to be an actual miracle]], and [[AngelUnaware character implied not to be entirely human]].

* On the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E10Amends Amends]]", it snows in Sunnydale, California after a forecast of sunny with temperatures in the high 70s Fahrenheit. Why? Because Buffy was trying to convince Angel not to kill himself by sunlight, and they needed a ChristmasMiracle to save him from death-by-sunlight. This on a show with DevilButNoGod. Of course, years later it's revealed a prime candidate for who saved him was [[WellIntentionedExtremist Jasmine]] whose motives were hardly purely benevolent. Or maybe [[WellIntentionedExtremist her motives]] were a bit ''too'' [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans benevolent]]...

* In ''Series/TheNanny,'' all the smallest child Gracie wanted for Christmas was for all of her family to be together (her father had to work out of town.) Through a convoluted series of events, her father accidentally sits on a delicate glass vase, and the family does end up all together for Christmas... in the hospital. ChristmasMiracle meets JackassGenie.

* The 2013 ChristmasEpisode of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' has this [[spoiler: when the Nerd learns that Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} published ''[[ComicBook/MaximumCarnage Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage]]''. For those not in the know, LJN was infamous for cranking out crappy [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]], and ''Maximum Carnage'' may just be an exception to that.]]