I like to think of this as a "bridging" movie. You know - a wind down from Halloween and ramp up for Christmas. In Canada we have already done with Thanksgiving and have nothing to look forward to until Christmas.
Christmas. When I'm stressed and wrapping a ton of gifts all at once, I like to pop that movie in and sing along with the dirge-like "Making Christmas." It's just how I feel about Christmas at that point in the preparations.
It's in between. It starts after Halloween is over, so it's not a pre-Halloween movie. And then it ends before Yule night is over, so it's not really an xmas movie either. Just sort of a "bored person making bad choices and ignoring the good advice given to him" movie....(not the biggest fan though it's growing on me the more times DH and DS watch it)