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!

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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. HI BRUCE
    1. White Christmas is not only my favourite Xmas movie but is in contention with the likes of Shane as my all-time favorite movie of any kind even though Bing although likeable is not one of my top idols. Certainly I’ve probably watched White Christmas more than any other movie because of course there is an annual anniversary that dictates it be taken down from the shelf at viewed at least once a year!

    2. However other people rarely place it on top of their lists of favourite Christmas films, in my experience most mentions in that respect going to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. For me though the Stewart flick does not have the appeal it once had even though Jimmy IS one of my idols.

    3. I was surprised to see that Home Alone shades White Christmas statistically in your chart. Indeed when purchasing power of grosses is calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the gap is even greater –

    White Christmas Actual Gross in 1954 of $30 million [per Cogerson 1954 Review] has the purchasing power today of $275.2 million per the Bureau’s inflation calculator.

    Home Alone Actual Gross in 1990 of $285.8 million [per Box Office Mojo] has the purchasing power today of $555 million per the Bureau’s inflation calculator.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bryan….yep….fond memories of watching Die Hard and Christmas Vacation with you and your brother….I watched Christmas Vacation with Sam this year….but she is still a year or two away from Die Hard. Thanks for the visit.

      Reply

    1. Hey Stein….yeah….Christmas Office Party has not reached the success of these 15 movies…and probably will not….though I do like Jason Bateman and I want to see this movie. Thanks for the visit.

      Reply

  4. So Bruce, looking at the critics chart – if it wasn’t for It’s a Wonderful Life, Die Hard would be ranked the greatest Xmas movie of all time? [Bob shudders] 😉

    I’ve seen all of these except Christmas in Connecticut and The Santa Clause.

    You could expand this list by adding Bad Santa and it’s sequel and other Christmas themed films like – Arthur Christmas, Fred Claus, Rise of the Guardians, Silent Night Deadly Night and Santa Claus the Movie.

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….I was thinking of a doing a poll like I did back in our HubPages days…that was fun….and in the end It’s A Wonderful Life beat everybody…but I can not find a widget that makes polls easy to include….and now we are running out of Christmas.

      Reply

        1. No need for Polls amigo, just list every Xmas themed movie ever made in the history of man, with stats and facts, won’t take long. [cue Bruce glaring] 🙂

          I’m keeding. Xmas themed pages only really become active for a few days each year. I remember my ‘Santa Claus in the Movies’ hub.

          Hey Bruce, I notice you have an icon of your little girl in your previous comment. Is there any way we can add our own icons to these comments? For instance my ‘iconic’ Cat People ‘icon’ I use at Hubpages and my Home Theater Forum?

          http://hubpages.com/@stevelensman

          Reply

          1. Hey Steve…..I had a blast doing the polls in 2011 at HubPages….which is why I wanted to do that again….I got almost 10,000 votes that year…..and I was curious how many I would get now…..but this is one case where HubPages has BlueHost beat.

            Still a Xmas page with all the Xmas movies would be cool…..that way I could include Trapped In Paradise with the 3 brother combo of Cage/Carvey/Lovitz.

            As for the icon…..I will have to check with WoC….and get back to you on how to do it. She has almost two weeks off….and I have list of tech questions for here….I will put that one near the top of the pile.

            Thanks for the return visit.

  5. Hi

    First I just want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and many thanks for all the work you put into the site.
    There’s no doubt that It’s a Wonderful Life is the best Christmas movie ever. Glad to see The Bishop’s Wife is high up in the ranking too. It seems to be lesser known but it has a fantastic cast. As for Miracle, I like both versions and can’t decide what one is best.
    Home Alone and its sequel Lost in New York are both terrific.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Chris….thanks….hope you and your family have a great holiday too. I was happy how this page turned out…I thought of it….researched it and wrote it in about 30 minutes…next year I will include the Top 100 Best Christmas Movies Statistically Speaking. It’s A Wonderful Life being number one was not a surprise at all. I too was glad The Bishop’s Wife ranked so high too. Love Cary Grant in that movie. Next year Lost in New York will make the page. Thanks as always for stopping by and commenting.

      Reply

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