Best Christmas Movies Statistically Speaking

Can't make a Christmas movie list and not include 1946's It's A Wonderful Life
Can’t make a Christmas movie list and not include 1946’s It’s A Wonderful Life

Want to know the Best Christmas Movies  statistically speaking?  Well that is what you are going to get here!  Our movie database has ranked over 36,000 movies using box office grosses, critic reviews, audience voting and award recognition.

So a quick search through our database showed over 100 Christmas movies.  The following table shows the Top 100 Christmas Movies from that search.

34 of the 100 Christmas movies crossed the $100 million adjusted domestic gross mark.  So they were all box office hits.

59 of 100 Christmas movies had an Critic/Audience Rating of 60% or better.   17 of the 100 Christmas movies received at least one Oscar® nomination (all categories)….with 3 of the movies winning at one least one Oscar® (any category).  Three of the movies on the table earned a Best Picture Oscar® nomination.

One of our favorite ....Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase.
One of our favorite ….Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase.

Christmas Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.

Christmas Movies Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Christmas Movies movies by the stars of the movie
  • Sort Christmas Movies movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Christmas Movies movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Christmas Movies movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Christmas Movie received.
  • Sort Christmas Movies movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

The Great Debate...is Die Hard a Christmas movie or not?
The Great Debate…is Die Hard a Christmas movie or not?

So there you go…..our Top 15 Christmas Movies Statistically Speaking. Have we forgotten a movie? ….probably…..our database is big…..but it only has ranked about 15% of all the movies ever made.  So we know we do not have all of the Christmas movies ranked.  But we fell this is a pretty good list….and ultimately it is our way to say…we hope everybody has a wonderful and safe holiday….and thanks for all the support on our webpages over the years.  So it is almost time for me, the 6 year old, and the 9 year old to sit down and watch Bruce Willis kill some terrorists, step on broken glass and blow up a massive building….nothing better than watching Christmas movies with the kids on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas everybody!

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Check Out Steve’s 75 Movie Christmas You Tube Video

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

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147 thoughts on “Best Christmas Movies Statistically Speaking

  1. A nice idea for a movie page Bruce. I remember doing a hub on ‘Santa Claus on the screen’ a few years ago.

    The only two I haven’t seen from your list is Christmas in Connecticut and The Santa Clause. Die Hard had to be in there somewhere eh? 🙂

    It’s a Wonderful Life is a worthy no.1 on the moviescore. Whoa! Home Alone was so successful, not one of my favorites but I did buy the John Williams soundtrack CD. I do like Gremlins though, might watch it tomorrow night.

    Missing from your list is – Meet Me in St. Louis, granted it’s not all set at Xmas but than nor is It’s a Wonderful Life. Also missing is Arthur Christmas, an excellent animated movie, watched it a few days ago. And than there is that Christmas turkey – Santa Claus The Movie and comedy Bad Santa.

    Merry Christmas!! Voted Up.

    1. Hey Steve….first of all…hope you have a great holiday. I remember that page….it still exists does it not? Santa Clause has some nice moments….that series fell off quickly but the first one is pretty good. Mmmm…I will have to look into Meet Me In St. Louis. There are many movies not ranked….they are in my database….they just did not crack this Top 15. Arthur Christmas is a great movie…my kids just rewatched that one on Tuesday night. Thanks for the visit and the comment.

  2. Good timing. Good list for the next few days for movie watching. For the record not thinking Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

    1. Hey Happy Holidays. Thanks for the nice words. Die Hard being a Christmas movie makes for a great debate…I respect your opinion….but for me it falls into the Christmas movie group.

  3. Love classic movies. So I am happy that the Top 4 were all made before 1954! L&H Wooden Soldiers should be up there too. It was a hit and loved by critics and audiences. Shared at facebook. Merry Christmas to you too.

    1. Hey Kimberlin. I have wanted to do a page on Laurel and Hardy….but I have struck out when it comes to finding box office information on their movies. I imagine that March of the Wooden Soldiers would make the list…I just wish I had more information on that movie. Thanks for the share at facebook.

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