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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2* AlternateAesopInterpretation: Leon Thomas of ''WebVideo/RenegadeCut'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1om1mtv5ZM reads the film]] as an endorsement of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology Prosperity Gospel]] (that God rewards the righteous with money, power, and status).
3* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Sarah Gobble of ''WebVideo/MidnightScreenings'' once suggested that Kirk's character fully understands the absurdity of what he's spouting, and is just trolling his buddies off of his back so he can buy some presents for his kids in peace.
4* AluminumChristmasTrees: Cameron's "material wealth is good" idea may sound like InsaneTrollLogic made for the film, but is an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology actual belief]] promoted by many American televangelists.
5* {{Anvilicious}}: While most religious-themed and even secular Christmas movies aim to demonize the over-commercialization of the holiday, this film sees it as a ''good'' thing and rattles the moral off with the subtlety of a ten-story neon sign.
6* BileFascination: Nowadays, people are more likely to watch it to see how it ended up as [=IMDb's=] lowest-rated movie ever, than for its intended reason.
7* DirectorDisplacement: A minor example - while Darren Doane was actually the director and co-writer of the film, Kirk Cameron served as executive producer and was the main driving force behind much of the production.
8* NarmCharm: The film is ridiculous, stupid, and filled with bizarre messages… [[SoBadItsGood which is exactly why people love it so much]].
9* {{Padding}}: Despite the movie being 79 minutes long, Christian breaks out of his HeroicBSOD at around the 55-minute mark. Everything from this point onwards is essentially just a RandomEventsPlot of the Cameron family celebrating Christmas, with the dance sequence in particular eating up a lot of screentime to little effect.
10* PresumedFlop: The film was widely disliked, with even Christians criticizing its quality and pro-materialism messages about Christmas and Christianity. Regardless, it made a profit. Not a large one, but even in a limited theatrical release, it made $2.8M on a $500,000 budget.
11* SoBadItsGood: It's entirely possible to enjoy the movie based on how bad it is. It helps that despite promoting itself as a Christian-centric movie, Cameron doesn't make any direct attacks on people and the logic is too obviously flawed to spread harmful messages, unlike with ''Film/WarRoom'' and ''Film/GodsNotDead''. Creator/BradJones, as part of ''WebVideo/MidnightScreenings'', not only saw it himself, he also sent ''five'' of his friends to see it as well and then review it themselves, and actively encouraged people to go see this film, just to prove to everyone that it was really as bat-shit insane as they all said it was. While none of them could say it was a good film, they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves too much to really be mad at it.
12* SpecialEffectFailure:
13** The shot where the theorist was talking behind a cup. It's jarring as you see that not only is he not actually moving his mouth, but the voice dub used to fill in his lines in that scene also sounds jarringly different from his voice in the rest of the movie.
14** Anytime somebody in the movie drinks a mug of hot cocoa, the cup very clearly has no weight inside of it.
15* StrawmanHasAPoint: Christian is depressed that Christmas is getting too materialistic. Kirk shoots down all his points and we're supposed to take his side, but Christian's not wrong and Kirk's misinformation about Christmas just makes his brother-in-law's points even more valid.
16* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[https://film.avclub.com/saving-christmas-is-the-solemn-duty-of-this-inept-kirk-1798181933 As the AV Club review]] notes, the idea of a film that analyses and reconciles the idea of how Christmas iconography has shifted and evolved and why it can still have cultural and religious value isn't necessarily a terrible one. The execution of it, however...
17* UncertainAudience: This film's jabs at common stereotypes of fundamentalist Christians (such as those who believe there's a "War on Christmas") didn't seem to win this movie any love from the atheists, while the unexpectedly ''pro''-materialist message was a huge turnoff to Christian viewers.
18* UnintentionallySympathetic: Not only do most viewers tend to side with Christian's anti-materialism stance on Christmas, but many have interpreted his character as suffering from some form of depression. The fact that he's critiqued by both Kirk and his own wife for supposedly being a self-centered killjoy hits a little too close to home for people with mental illness.

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