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. Hey Bruce,
    Interesting list, but as I looked through it, I realized that I’m not big on Christmas movies. The top three on your list are my favorite. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf and a few others were fun. Apart from that, there are not many I know or would see again. I just saw The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, thinking it would be fun for the kids, but apart from the colorful visuals, it was mostly disappointing as your rating suggests. Nevertheless, this page is good excuse to convey my best wishes to you and every-one on UMR for the Christmas season. Keep up the good work, but enjoy some warm and relaxing time with loved ones.

    Reply

    1. Hey PhilHoF17. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these Christmas movies. I watch my favorites regularly but rarely watch new Christmas movies. Though Kurt Russell’s The Christmas Chronciles might be on the annual watch list now.

      Thanks for the nice holiday wishes. We return the same thoughts to you and your family. Thanks for the mini review of The Four Realms…we will see that one much much later.

      You will soon be a “vintage HoFer”…..as we have two new honorees coming. Make sure you bring your UMR movie jacket to the ceremony…..lol.

      Reply

    1. HI GUYS I appreciate your season’s greetings and hope you too are both enjoying yourselves [and thanks for the link Steve] We 3 were having a friendly debate about what constitutes a Christmas movie and even doing some list refining so I checked out some of the Joel-type “experts” who think they know better than the rest of us and verdicts were diverse and convoluted.

      One source felt the movie had to be set in the Christmas season and its Christmas theme directly related to the plot. The author there saw Die Hard as a Christmas movie but felt the Christmas presence in Batman Returns wasn’t strong enough for it to qualify.

      Another left it to the exhibitors – ANY movie released at Xmas was A Christmas movie. Thus Christmas in July was not a Christmas movie as it was released in the States in Oct 1940 and in the UK in Feb 1941 & Canucks and Brits could not regard Black Christmas as a Christmas movie as it was released in those countries during Oct 74 but Yanks could because its US release date was 20 Dec 74.

      However perhaps it would be best for the individual to designate as “Christmas” the movies that please HIM/HER. For me that would be those set in the Christmas period, had Christmas as the central theme and were feel-good. “Adult” themes could not extend beyond a mistletoe “Christmas kiss” and there would be no bad language.

      Over here in one video store no “adult” movies of any kind were ever displayed. However there was a special “under the counter” service that provided risqué movies in general for a select clientele among whom were many policemen even though the arrangement was then illegal over here. I in turn would prefer kept separate from the mainstream, those “Christmas” movies that for example have guys climbing down chimneys dressed as Sana but carrying a huge axe.

      Reply

      1. Hey Bob. Good points made in this comment. This has been a friendly debate for sure. Hope you have a a great holiday….on to 2019.

        Reply

    2. Hey Steve…..thanks for they holiday good wishes. A hectic but great day. Love the attached photo. Now it is time for New Years. Is 2018 really almost done….how can that be? Hope you had a good Xmas too.

      Reply

  3. I currently have It’s a Wonderful Life on television. I read earlier today that it was suspected as possible Communist propaganda by the FBI for a decade and investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

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    1. I can believe it. The red scare was going strong in the immediate years following the release of It’s A Wonderful Life. Thanks for the feedback.

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    1. Thanks Laurent….by my calculations it is almost Christmas Day in France…we are just starting our Christmas Eve here in the states. Hope your holiday is awesome.

      Reply

  5. RE” Christmas in July

    I just recently saw this for the first time. Dick Powell writes a new slogan for a rival coffee company for contest for $25,000 and apparently wins. Actually, some friends of his play a joke on him by creating a fake telegram telling him he wins and he gets the check after which he starts buying everyone presents. His girlfriends says it is just like Christmas.

    Reply

        1. HI BRUCE

          I would have to see the whole movie again to be definitive but for now I go on the basis of Flora’s helpful synopsis and I would therefore regard somebody buying presents in the middle of summer and another person mentioning Christmas as a bit of a stretch for the plot of a true Christmas movie.

          Those kinds of situations to a greater or lesser extent can happen often in movies without the films concerned being classified as Christmas ones. If for example Van Heflin bought Laddie and some of the other ranchers new guns in Shane as presents in say April and the latter said it reminded them of Christmas would that make Shane a Christmas movie?

          Reply

          1. Hey Bob….compared to some of the movies we booted out….Trading Places (yes Danny A. wears a Santa Clause suite in one scene) Die Hard 2 (amazing that the great debate about Die Hard and Christmas never really mentions DH2) and others it is the better match. I think….we are going to keep Christmas In July this year…..but can open up the discussion for Christmas 2019…..lol.

    2. Hey Flora….that sounds very familiar…..the problem with watching so many movies…they seem to get mixed up in my head…..we are closing in on 550 movies seen in 2018. I am betting I have seen that one. Thanks for the information.

      Reply

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