What are America’s favorite Christmas movies?
64% of Americans are planning on watching one this year.
Whether you’re into so-bad-they’re-good Christmas movies, anti-Christmas Christmas movies, or even semi-horrifying Christmas movies, there seems to be something out there for even the least festive film fans once the holiday season rolls around. Perhaps that’s part of the reason that a full 64% of US adults say they plan on sitting down to watch one this year, per a new YouGov survey.
However, as anyone who’s managed to get halfway through a particularly bad (which is really saying something) Hallmark holiday movie can attest, not all Christmas flicks are created equal, with the same YouGov poll revealing America’s favorites.
“Home Alone,” the 1990 home invasion comedy classic starring a 9-year-old Macaulay Culkin, sits atop the tree, with some 56% of respondents who’d seen the movie saying they loved it. The film hauled a mightily impressive ~$286 million when it was released some 35 years ago, meaning it’s not only the most loved American Christmas film, but also the top-grossing, per Box Office Mojo figures.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” from 1965, with its soft-jazzy soundtrack, which has become a favorite among vinyl-hoarding music aficionados the world over, sits in second place, while other decades-old movies like “White Christmas” (1954) and, maybe controversially, “Die Hard” (1988) round out much of America’s list of favorites.
Indeed, you have to get down as far as “The Holdovers” from 2023 in 10th place to find the first holiday movie made in the last 20 years, suggesting that it takes quite an effort to break into America’s Christmas movie royalty.
