It’s hard to avoid reading this film through a class lens whereby Matthew Broderick’s character, Dr. Steve Finch, is positioned as the reasonable one in the central conflict entirely through his middle-class status rather than through any reasonable actions. His opulent suburban home and his status in a professional job establish him as the middle-class norm which is intruded upon by Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito), a debt-ridden working-class interloper whose Christmas decorations are offensive not because they disturb Steve per se but simply because they’re gauche compared to the Finch’s WASPy ‘traditional’ Christmas.