The Ultimate Christmas Movie The Ultimate Christmas Movie

What makes the perfect Christmas movie? Everyone has their own opinion, but we wanted to find out once and for all.

We looked at 20 of the most popular festive films of all time and ranked them against 20 different criteria to determine the ultimate Christmas movie.

What makes the perfect Christmas movie? What is it that turns a standard film into a festive favourite? And which is the best of the best? Everyone has their own opinion, but we wanted to find out once and for all.

After some serious deliberation, we decided on four key elements that make a Christmas classic. It must have Christmas references (obviously), perform well in the box office, be a hit with critics and audiences alike, and create a festive buzz year after year.

Using this as a starting point, we looked at 20 of the most popular festive films of all time and ranked them against 20 different criteria to determine the ultimate Christmas movie.

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Overall Rank
Christmas References
Financial Performance
Critical Acclaim
Festive Buzz

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Worldwide box office gross
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics)
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience)
Google searches
Twitter mentions
Shots of Christmas presents
Shots of Christmas outfits
Shots of reindeer
Shots of festive activities
Shots of Christmas food
Shots of snow
Shots of carol singers
Shots of Santa
Shots of presents being wrapped
Shots of Christmas shopping
Number of Christmas songs
Number of elves
Number of Christmas trees
Mentions of "Christmas" in script
Shots of Christmas stockings

Home Alone (1990)

Elf (2003)

Love Actually (2003)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

The Santa Clause (1994)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Gremlins (1984)

The Polar Express (2004)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Die Hard (1988)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Scrooged (1988)

Jingle All The Way (1996)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

White Christmas (1954)

Bad Santa (2003)

The Holiday (2006)

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Data sourced from The Numbers, Box Office Mojo, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Google and Twitter. Worldwide box office gross numbers have been adjusted for inflation, with figures accurate as of November 2019. Google searches and Twitter mentions were taken from 1st November 2018 to 1st January 2019.

Please note, this information is purely for entertainment purposes and may not be 100% accurate or definitive.