Last Christmas? Depicting Christmas in Apocalyptic and Postapocalyptic Film and Television

Crome, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0263-0829 (2024) Last Christmas? Depicting Christmas in Apocalyptic and Postapocalyptic Film and Television. Parallax. ISSN 1353-4645 (In Press)

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Abstract

This article suggests two models for using Christmas in apocalyptic popular culture. The first focuses on the survival of Christmas after apocalyptic events, emphasising personal revelation in the form of individual or interpersonal change. Nonetheless, wider political and social systems remain implicitly in place. This is linked explicitly to American civil religion. The second model emphasises the scale of disaster in its eradication of Christmas as representative of wider cultural norms. It emphasises revelation on a political level, encouraging viewers to take action to prevent these potential futures. This position has been particularly apparent in British productions. A variety of films and series are examined in this article, including Good Will to Men (1955), War Game (1966), Threads (1984), Silent Night (2021) Last Man on Earth (2015-2018) and Carol and the End of the World (2023).