Hannukkah’s just around the corner, Christmas is right behind, Festivus is Monday, and today happens to be Underdog, Ugly Sweater, & Sangria Day (separately, of course). But this week, as has been our holiday tradition, we asked readers to weigh in with their favorite holiday movie.
Now, “holiday” doesn’t have to be seasonal, though this is the season of the year that seems to have the largest assortment of films associated with the season – and we not only provided readers with a large list to pick from, we offered an opportunity for write-ins!
So – what about this year?
Viewing Views
Well, readers were already off to a good start with their holiday movie viewing; asked how many holiday movies they had seen thus far, the top 10 cited by readers were:
41% - Christmas Vacation
39% - Elf
35% - Home Alone
21% - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon)
20% - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
20% - A Charlie Brown Christmas
18% - It’s a Wonderful Life
18% - The Santa Clause
15% - A Christmas Story
14% - The Polar Express
Just 15% hadn’t seen any of the holiday movies listed. As one explained, “Haven’t had time to watch any holiday movies yet.”
Favorite Flicks
As for favorite movies – well, there was quite a variety of opinions. But the top 10 really stood out from the rest. We had a six-way tie for 8th to 10th place:
3% - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
3% - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
3% - The Year Without a Santa Claus
3% - White Christmas
3% - Die Hard
3% - Home Alone
While sixth and seventh place went to:
4% - Miracle on 34th Street (traditional, with Natalie Wood)
5% - Love, Actually
Now, a year ago, we saw Christmas Story “poked” by the Griswold’s Christmas Vacation, while in 2017 it was A Christmas Story, and in 2016 It was a Wonderful Life during Christmas Vacation with an Elf, and in 2015, It was a Wonderful Red-Nosed Miracle Christmas Carol led by Miracle on 34th Street (traditional, with Natalie Wood), followed by It’s a Wonderful Life and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (with Yukon Cornelius, Hermey the elf who wanted to be a dentist, and… brrrr… the abominable!).
‘High’ Five
And, as for this year’s top five:
Fifth place went to:
7% - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon)
Fourth place (down from second a year ago):
8% - A Christmas Story
While we had a tie for second place:
13% - Elf
13% - It’s a Wonderful Life
And this year’s reader favorite holiday movie was (again):
18% - Christmas Vacation
Holiday Songs and Traditions
We also asked readers if they had a favorite holiday song. In that grouping, “O Holy Night” topped the charts (21%), followed by “Baby It's Cold Outside” (11%), “White Christmas” (8%), “Silent Night” (8%), “O Come All Ye Faithful” (7%) – and then we had a multi-way tie; “The Little Drummer Boy” (6%), “The Christmas Song” (6%), “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (6%), “Mary, Did You Know?” (6%), “Jingle Bell Rock” (6%), and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of The Year” (6%).
Readers also shared some of their holiday traditions – here’s a sampling: cookie baking, Christmas movie/pajama night, 7 fishes on Christmas Eve, Baking, Getting the tree right after thanksgiving, Trail of Lights, Real Christmas Tree, No alarms. We get up when we get up, Open Christmas gifts, have mimosas and enjoy a formal Christmas breakfast, Trudging through the snow to pick out & cut down our Christmas tree. Driving around town looking at all the lit up decorated houses, seafood extravaganza on Christmas Eve, Polar Express train ride, view neighborhood Christmas lights…
One reader explained, “we are a mixed family so we celebrate Hannukkah and Christmas... we play dradles, drink hot cocoa and play Mexican loteria after Christmas dinner.”
“My husband and I and our three small kids all bake a birthday cake for baby Jesus on Christmas morning and sing ‘Happy Birthday’!” noted another.
“A huge extended family Christmas dinner the Sunday before so we all can share with our smaller families. Definitely a prime rib with mashed potatoes followed by a homemade ‘booze’ infused cheesecake now that my kids are old enough to partake! Just loads of food and fun.”
Another shared, “One of Santa's elves brings donuts and Christmas pajamas to my children on Christmas Eve morning. We also have Christmas Vacation moose head cocktail glasses that we drink mimosas out of while they open presents on Christmas morning.”
“My family gets together on Christmas Eve. We each get to pick a Christmas song to sing. We always finish with ‘12 days of Christmas.’ Each of us get a day with all of us singing ‘Partridge in a Pear Tree.’”
“The family is allowed one present on Christmas Eve, and it’s the same thing every year. Everyone gets new pajamas. Mom buys for dad and vice versa, brother buys for sister and vice versa. Ironically, my wife's family does the exact same tradition,” said another.
“We always go to Zoo lights in Portland, Oregon. Been going for years now. Last year, we went by the lion enclosure and got to hear the male lion roar! Now that was a Christmas present for sure!”
Other Comments
And here’s some more comments about this week’s poll, and this week’s polling topics:
Glad to see Die Hard listed as a Christmas movie! It’s just great fun just to listen to the debate!
Must see movies every year: It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, Elf Styles of Christmas Music: Traditional (Crosby, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Elvis); Jazz/instrumental It’s hard to pick one favorite song.
Love the Coopers is awesome!
We love spending time with our friends.
Bleeding hearts of the world will unite while blousing in the department store and while it will be quite hooter in there, be careful when you leave the store because the yellow ones don’t stop.
I’m a sucker for Hallmark Christmas shows!
LOVE holidays.
“A Christmas Story” is NOT a Christmas movie – it's an anti-Christmas movie – and I’ve been to the “house” in Cleveland!
Christmas is the largest birthday party in the world! We celebrate Jesus’ birthday all month long with all sorts of celebrations. I just hope everyone remembers what Christmas is all about and take some time to slow down and be thankful for all the blessings in our lives. But most important, the birth of Jesus. Merry Christmas!
“O Holy Night” is the most wonderful Christmas song ever. I assume it’s pretty hard to sing, which is why I don’t hear it that often. For movie, I chose Love Actually. I can’t say it’s the greatest movie on the list. See, I don't really like Christmastime because of all the pressure. I feel much relief when it's done. I got Love Actually from Redbox after Christmas last year. It was really nice watching those winter scenes after the actual holiday when I had a chance to enjoy it, so that’s my why I checked it on this survey.
As a childless adult traveling for the holidays is always required. I’ve only gotten away with not traveling for Christmas once, and it was pure bliss.
Current holiday songs are kind of blah. I like the older ones.
I’m just very glad this research committee agrees that Die Hard is indeed a Christmas movie!
It will be a very Happy Holiday for ALL if Congress passes the SECURE Act before the weekend!!! Keep your fingers crossed and pray for this miracle to happen on the Hill!
At the end of “Santa Clause is Coming to Town,” Fred Astaire says, “If only we could all give and love as Santa does, then maybe there would be peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.” May Santa live in us all!
And a very special thanks to all of our readers who participated in this, and in every, NAPA-Net Reader Poll throughout the year!
Here’s wishing you all a very special holiday season – and we’ll have some new interesting reader poll topics for you after the New Year!
