SURVEY SAYS: Favorite Holiday Movie

December 17, 2012 - Back by popular demand is our annual holiday movie survey.

Responding NewsDash readers could choose their favorite from our list based on previous reader selections (plus a few extras), or make their own selection.  

Less than 1% of respondents selected “Bad Santa,” “The Hebrew Hammer,” “The Santa Clause,” “Scrooged” and “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” Less than 2% chose “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Polar Express.”  

Three percent selected “Home Alone” as their favorite holiday movie, and 4% chose “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “A Christmas Carol” and “Elf” received 5.5% of responding readers’ votes.  

That leaves the top five selections:  

  • “Miracle on 34th Street” (6.1%),  
  • “Christmas Vacation” (9.1%),  
  • “White Christmas” (10.9%)  
  • “A Christmas Story” (12.7%), and 
  • “It’s a Wonderful Life” (18.8%). 

 

Nearly 13% of responding readers made their own selections, including: 

  • “The Little Drummer Boy,” 
  • “Surviving Christmas,” 
  • “Christmas in Connecticut,” 
  • “Die Hard,” 
  • “Love Actually,” 
  • “How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Chuck Jones Version,” 
  • “Bernard and the Genie,” 
  • “Holiday Inn,” 
  • “Family Man,” 
  • “An American Christmas Carol,” 
  • “The House Without a Christmas Tree,” 
  • “Home for the Holidays,” 
  • “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” 
  • “Desk Set (Hepburn-Tracy),” 
  • “Prancer,” 
  • “The Preachers Wife,” and 
  • “A Christmas Heart.” 

  

In the verbatim comments, there was a lot of support for “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and one reader argued that a holiday movie should be about the holiday and not just set during the holidays. In response to one reader, my motivation for including movies about Hanukkah was not to be “politically correct” but to be fair and equal.  

Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said: “I’m singing a Christmas Carol about a White Christmas because I’m Home Alone on my Christmas Vacation feeling Scrooged; but then Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer brought The Toy That Saved Christmas and I realize that a Miracle on 34th Street and a stay at the Holiday Inn showed me that really….It’s a Wonderful Life!”

Verbatim  

the Hebrew Hammer? How hard were you looking to try and be "pc?" I'm surprised you missed "Rugrats - Kwanzaa"... 

 

I love the classics; likely because I've noticed I'm almost as old as some of them. 

 

I'm singing a Christmas Carol about a White Christmas because I'm Home Alone on my Christmas Vacation feeling Scrooged; but then Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer brought The Toy That Saved Christmas and I realize that a Miracle on 34th Street and a stay at the Holiday Inn showed me that really....It's a Wonderful Life! 

 

Charlie Brown is a timeless classic that explains "what Christmas is all about" in a simple way. My eyes get misty every year when I watch it - and I have for at least 45 years. 

 

we own 5 different versions of this movie 

 

While it wouldn't be Christmas without "It's a Wonderful Life", I have been enjoying the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime holiday movies. Warning - if you decide to view a couple, make sure you have plenty of tissue. 

 

Love them! 

 

Remember what Christmas is all about not what's advertised and practice the principles everyday of the year. 

 

Yipee Ki-Yay! 

 

There are so many wonderful movies on this list. I can't choose just one 

 

No matter how hard it is to get into the Christmas spirit some years, it always manages to come as I watch all my favorite movies. I start with Miracle on 34th Street right after the actual parade, then (in no particular order) The Lemon Drop Kid (Bob Hope introduces the song Silver Bells), Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Scrooge! (the musical version with Albert Finney) and It's a Wonderful Life. 

 

There are so many sappy new holiday movies made for TV. I have to admit to watching a few. While they were okay, nothing compares to the old classics. 

 

I'm old enough I'm burned out on the standard Christmas (or other holiday) movie. I prefer something humorous and often irreverent so that I can laugh during what is sadly a very stressful time of year for us as service providers. 

 

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" brings home the holiday spirit with a few simple characters. But the 1954 version of "A Christmas Carol" with Allistair Sim ranks right up there. "Elf" is the funniest contemporary. And I can't miss the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Did I also mention I love "Miracle on 34th" (original black & white version with Natalie Wood). Just a sentimental old fool....... Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! 

 

I would Christmas movies better in general if they did not start airing them in October. Christmas is one day. Within my lifetime I predict there will be year-round Christmas wherever we go and I will have to become a shut-in. 

 

none 

 

Definitely Christmas Vacation. We are so stressed these days that a good belly laugh Ho Ho Ho is really, really needed by all! But then, the phrase "Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho" comes to mind from Die Hard which is a good escape from stress also. 

 

I love the ones that teach the real meaning of Christmas

Verbatim (cont.)  

Love all the cheesy holiday movies on Lifetime and Hallmark! 

 

Holiday Inn is also a great movie that introduced "White Christmas". 

 

And specifically the 1951 version with Alistair Sim, who played the best Scrooge of any I have seen. 

 

An American Christmas Carol - Henry Winkler does an excellent job playing "Scrooge". 

 

Never tire of watching it on Christmas Eve 

 

A Christmas Carol is just classic, regardless of the stars that play the key parts. It should be required viewing! 

 

Who can't relate to CB, Lucy, Snoopy and the gang. For me the holiday season begins when A Charlie Brown Christmas is aired. I can't remember the last year I missed it. I can actually recite dialogue from 80% of it (I'm working on the other 20%). It should be mandatory viewing for every adult and child because in a simple, yet profound way, it reminds us "what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown" (to quote Linus). Too bad the story is still relevant over 50 years later. Merry Christmas to all the Charlie Brown's out there! 

 

hard to choose just one! 

 

Call me Scrooge, but I'm already sick of all the holiday specials on TV. 

 

A Christmas Story ("you'll shoot your eye out kid") will probably win, but in my mind, it is the most "anti-Christmas" movie out there. A true Christmas movie needs to be uplifting, and have a message of hope. A Christmas Story has none of that, and is only in hte list because it is set at Christmastime. Just my 2 cents worth. 

 

Greatest movie of all time. 

 

Second place for me is The Ref with Denis Leary. 

 

I have to watch It's a Wonderful Life every year...and every year I get tears in my eyes...such a great, great movie! 

 

Regarding A Charlie Brown Christmas, when Linus walks on stage and tells the Christmas story, he does it better than any member of the clergy I've ever heard. 

 

I love most of them, but Elf makes me cringe. 

 

Wish everyone could treat everyday the very way they felt after their favorite movie (above). 

 

I just love Whitney Houston in this movie. 

 

Thanks for bringing "back" the survey.... Go, Griswolds! 

 

 

 

NOTE: Responses reflect the opinions of individual readers and not the stance of Asset International or its affiliates.

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