2025 Christmas Movie Survey Results
And now it is time for the moment I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for… the results of the 2nd Annual Showtime with Shane Christmas Movie Survey! Everyone’s favorite holiday tradition! I used almost entirely new questions this year, and we’ll see if I can come up with another set of questions to use for next year, but for now gather the family around your desktop, sit back, relax, and read these stats. The survey featured 9 questions (10 if you count asking for names) and I received back 111 completed surveys. Let’s move through question by question.
Question 1 - What fictional movie character do you most associate with Christmas? (Excluding Santa)
On this question I received back 112 answers from my 111 responders. You may notice I will sometimes get more responses than there were responders because people will put multiple answers (which I’m all for).
I had 3 people that still put Santa, so shoutout to that 2% and their commitment to St. Nick.
The most common response with 31 answers (28%) was The Grinch. Which version of the Grinch? Great question, keep reading to find out people’s favorite version of the characters.
Following Mr. Grinch with 24 answers (21%) was Buddy the Elf, who was of course played by Will Ferrell in ‘Elf’ (2003).
And taking the third spot with 18 answers (16%) was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Originally appearing in print, then song, the most famous iteration of the character came in the 1964 Rankin & Bass TV special, voiced by Billie Mae Richards.
There were three characters who got 5 answers each (4%); Clark Griswold from ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,’ Kevin McCallister from ‘Home Alone,’ and Ebenezer Scrooge from ‘A Christmas Carol.’
Two characters got 3 answers (2.5%), Frosty the Snowman from his titular TV special and just general elves.
Jack Skellington from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ received 2 answers (1.5%).
All of the following characters received 1 response (0.9%) each; Art the Clown (Terrifier 3), George Bailey (It’s a Wonderful Life), Hermey the Elf (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), Hero Boy (The Polar Express), Judy Haynes (White Christmas), Ralphie Parker (A Christmas Story), John Rambo (First Blood), SpongeBob SquarePants, Zero (The Nightmare Before Christmas), and general Christmas figures, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer, Snowman, & Jack Frost.
Personally I would have to cast my vote to Buddy the Elf.
Question 2 - What is your favorite decade of Christmas movie?
This was a multiple choice question, so here’s the options the surveyees were presented with:
A - 1940s (It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Christmas in Connecticut, The Bishop's Wife, etc.)
B - 1950s (White Christmas, The Holly and the Ivy, We're No Angels, etc.)
C - 1960s (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, etc.)
D - 1970s (The Year Without a Santa Claus, Scrooge, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, etc.)
E - 1980s (A Christmas Story, Scrooged, Die Hard, Christmas Vacation, etc.)
F - 1990s (Home Alone, The Santa Clause, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Jingle All the Way, etc.)
G - 2000s (Elf, Love Actually, The Holiday, The Polar Express, etc.)
H - 2010s (Arthur Christmas, The Christmas Chronicles, Klaus, The Grinch, etc.)
I - 2010s (Arthur Christmas, The Christmas Chronicles, Klaus, The Grinch, etc.)
The 1990s received the most selections, wracking up 33 answers (30%)
Following up the 90s (literally) was the 2000s with 30 answers (27%)
In third place was the 1960s with 18 answers (16%)
Followed by the 1980s with 16 answers (14%)
Then we have a decent drop off with the 1940s bringing in 7 votes (6%)
The 1970s received 4 votes (4%)
And the 1950s, 2010s, and 2020s received a single vote a piece (0.9%)
While my personal favorite Christmas movie came in the 2010s, I think the 2000s takes the cake for me.
Question 3 - What actor or film is your favorite adaptation of Ebenezer Scrooge/A Christmas Carol?
This was an open response and I got back 112 total answers. 28 responders (25%) said they either didn’t have a favorite or didn’t know, with one responder actually saying they’d only ever read the book. Quite the intellectual. Here are how the other responses rolled in.
The heavy frontrunner was Jim Carrey from Disney’s 2009 3D animated, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ who received 36 votes (32%).
There was a tie for second place, receiving 11 votes each (10%) were Michael Caine from 1992’s ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ and Alan Young from 1983’s ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ in which the Ebenezer Scrooge role is played by Scrooge McDuck.
Following those two was George C. Scott from the 1984 TV movie, with Scott receiving 9 votes (8%).
After Scott was Bill Murray, who played a Scrooge-inspired character named Frank Cross in 1988’s ‘Scrooged.’ Murray received 5 votes (4%).
Three gentlemen received 2 votes a piece (2%); Will Ferrell from 2022’s ‘Spirited,’ Reginald Owen from the 1938 film, & Alastair Sim from the 1951 film.
There were 6 additional answers that received 1 vote each (0.9%).
Jim Backus, who voiced the cartoon character Mr. Magoo many times, including 1962’s ‘Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol’
Michael Gambon from the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2010)
Tom Hanks, who I feel like may have been an accidental answer, though one of the many characters Hanks played in ‘The Polar Express’ was a puppet of Scrooge
Guy Pearce from the 2019 dark fantasy miniseries ‘A Christmas Carol’ on FX
Patrick Stewart, who played the character on stage for many years before the 1999 TNT TV movie
I also had one responder put ‘Tom and Jerry.’ I did some digging and I don’t see that those characters have ever done a take on this story, though they have done takes on ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.’
My personal favorite version of Scrooge was Alastair Sim, so shoutout to those 2 other people that said Sim.
Question 4 - Are there any Christmas movies you particularly dislike or refuse to watch? If so, why?
Another open response question, this one got back 115 total responses, with 36 (31%) saying no, there are no films they dislike or refuse to watch. A lot of people provided me with reasons, which I will include sometimes, but not every time.
I had 7 responses (6%) that said they won’t watch Hallmark or Netflix romance Christmas movies. Some other less specific answers, more genres or types of films, than specific films were any horror/scary/violent movie (4 answers, 3%), any old black & white movie (2 answers, 2%), anything pre-1980s (1 answer, 0.9%), and anything R-rated (1 answer, 0.9%).
The two actual movies that received the most responses with 6 each (5%) were ‘Elf’ and ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.’ The general ideas for why people disliked both films were that they were dumb, unfunny, or people couldn’t stand the lead actors.
There were three films that got 5 answers each (4%) and funnily enough all for similar reasons, with responders saying they found the movies creepy or even scary. They were the 2000 version of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas,’ ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ and ‘The Polar Express.’
Receiving 4 answers was ‘A Christmas Story’ with 3 saying they found it annoying and 1 saying they haven’t watched it because they’re going against the grain. I specifically point out that 1 because it was my brother and I share the same sentiment. Haven’t watched it and now I have purposefully not so people are shocked when I say I haven’t.
Four films received 3 answers (3%) a piece for a variety of reasons.
People said any version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ because it’s boring and sad.
‘Die Hard’ because it’s not the Christmas vibe.
‘Love Actually’ because it’s icky and everyone is a cheater.
‘The Santa Clause’ because they just never connected with it.
Receiving 2 answers (2%) were ‘Bad Santa,’ ‘Home Alone,’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
And rounding us out are 15 films that received a single vote each (0.9%)
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Family Stone
Four Christmases
Fred Claus
Frosty the Snowman
The Grinch (2018 animated)
Home Alone 3
Krampus
Last Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street
Anything with the Muppets
Santa Jaws
Santa’s Slay
Terrifier 3
Trading Places
So I guess the moral of this is that no matter what your favorite is, someone dislikes it. What a world.
Question 5 - Is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' a Christmas or Halloween movie?
Another multiple choicer, this one is pretty straight forward. The options were:
A Christmas Movie!
A Halloween Movie!
Both!
Neither!
No Clue!
Out of 111, 49 (44%) said it was both a Christmas & Halloween movie (I agree!).
23 people (21%) said it was a Halloween movie.
While 22 people (20%) said they had no clue.
14 people (13%) said it was a Christmas movie.
And 3 people (3%) said it was neither, which I do feel like was the only wrong answer, but to each their own.
Question 6 - What is your favorite version of The Grinch?
This one was also multiple choice and the people had four options to choose from:
A - 1966 original TV special, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!' starring Boris Karloff as the Grinch
B - 2000 live action film, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch
C - 2018 animated film, 'The Grinch' starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch
D - 2022 horror film, 'The Mean One' starring David Howard Thornton as the Grinch
I guess I also could have included those new Wal-Mart commercials?
Unsurprisingly, Jim Carrey’s take on the Grinch was the absolute favorite (meaning Carrey was the top answer on two different questions this year). Of the 111 answers, Carrey amassed 71 (64%), making this the most answered answer on the whole survey, as well as the only answer to crest 50% of the responses.
Our runner-up was the original special, which received 24 votes (22%).
In third was my personal favorite version, the 2018 animated film, which got 14 votes (13%).
And finally was the 2022 horror film, which got 2 votes (2%).
Question 7 - Are there any non-Christmas movies you like to watch during the holiday season?
An open response question, I got back 127 different answers on this question. 32 people (25%) said that they don’t have any non-Christmas movies they watch during the holidays. I got 3 people (2%) that said they’ll watch any Hallmark movie, 2 people (1.5%) that said any romance movie, and 1 person (0.8%) that said any adventure movie. I also had 1 person (0.8%) that said that they just put on a Yule Log to watch.
In terms of actual answers, there were two that took the cake, being the only specific films to receive more than 2 answers. Firstly and expectedly for me was the Harry Potter series. 27 different people (21%) said they watch Harry Potter during the holidays, and I’d be right in there with those people!
The second answer kinda peeves me. 11 people (9%) said they watch ‘Die Hard.’ That doesn’t fit the criteria for this question because it IS a Christmas movie, a matter I feel very passionately about and wrote a whole dissertation about last Christmas.
There were five responses that were said by 2 people (1.5%); ‘Little Women,’ ‘Rush Hour,’ the Lord of the Rings films, ‘Rise of the Guardians,’ & ‘The Holiday.’ Personally I would put ‘Rise of the Guardians’ in the Christmas bucket and I think ‘The Holiday’ is pretty definitely a Christmas movie as well.
There were 41 unique answers that received 1 response each (0.8%). Of those, four are either considered a Christmas movie or are often associated with Christmas (‘Batman Returns,’ ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ ‘Gremlins,’ & ‘The Polar Express’). I had 1 person each say that they would watch any Batman/Superman movie, any John Wayne movie, any Star Wars movie, or any Studio Ghibli movie. There were also two TV series that were mentioned, the Hallmark reality series ‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ and ‘Game of Thrones.’ Okay now into the 30 specific movies that received a nod.
Ben-Hur
Bugsy Malone
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Coming to America
A Dog Way’s Home
GoodFellas
The Greatest Showman
Harvey
The Hateful Eight
Hello Dolly
Let the Right One In
Mamma Mia!
Meet the Fockers
Miracle at Morgan’s Creek
The Notebook
Notting Hill
The Phantom of the Opera
Pride and Prejudice
Sharknado
The Shining
Sleepless in Seattle
The Sound of Music
The Ten Commandments
Transformers
The Velveteen Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit (shoutout to Edmund for the most British answer ever. Bet bro watches Paddington too lol)
When Harry Met Sally
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The Wizard of Oz
You’ve Got Mail
Question 9 - What niche Christmas movie would you recommend to someone? (If someone wanted to watch something other than the basic Christmas staples)
Yet another open answer, I got back 119 total responses. I had 20 people (17%) say they didn’t have a recommendation. Then I had 1 person (0.8%) say they only watch the staples, one say they only watch ‘Home Alone,’ and one say they only watch ‘Elf.’
I’ll fully admit that I got a good amount of answers that I wouldn’t consider niche, but that’s really a subjective criteria so I’ll keep my opinions out of it.
I had 6 people (5%) say you could go watch a Hallmark Christmas movie.
The most mentioned film was ‘Gremlins’ which got 6 answers. I do think that’s a pretty good shout. There’s kind of a juxtaposition here though because is a movie niche if it’s the most recommended niche movie? Beats me.
There were five films that received 3 mentions (2.5%) each. ‘Batman Returns,’ ‘A Christmas Story,’ ‘Christmas with the Kranks,’ ‘Die Hard,’ & ‘Klaus.’
There were ten films that received 2 mentions (2%) each. ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,’ 1951’s ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘The Holiday,’ ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Krampus,’ ‘Love Actually,’ ‘The Polar Express,’ ‘Red One,’ ‘Rise of the Guardians,’ & ‘Terrifier 3.’
Then there were 48 films that received a single mention (0.8%) each, plus 1 responder who said just to watch the Christmas episode of your favorite TV show:
8-Bit Christmas
An Affair to Remember
The Apartment
Bad Santa
Barbie: A Perfect Christmas
Big Time Rush Christmas
The Bishop’s Wife
Black Christmas
The Christmas Candle
The Christmas Chronicles
Dead End
Eight Crazy Nights
Eloise at Christmastime
Ernest Saves Christmas
The Family Man
The Family Stone
Finding Mr. Christmas
Four Christmases
Frosty the Snowman
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Home Alone 3
Hot Frosty
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Jack Frost
Just Friends
A Miser Brother’s Christmas
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
The Nativity
Nativity!
Noelle
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Office Christmas Party
Our Little Christmas
Over the Moon
Prancer
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
The Ref
The Regular Show Christmas Special
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie
The Sound of Music
The Star Wars Holiday Special
Tangerine
This Christmas
To Grandmother’s House We Go
Unaccompanied Minors
We’re No Angels
White Christmas
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Question 10 - What is your all-time favorite Christmas movie?
Rounding us out is the only repeat question from last year. And it’s actually a surprisingly different spread. Last year the Top 3 were ‘Elf’ (24 votes), ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ (13 votes), and ‘Home Alone’ (9 votes), out of 113 total answers.
This year I received 135 total responses, with 4 people (3%) saying they didn’t have a favorite, and 1 person (0.7%) saying their favorite was any animated film. Otherwise we have a very even spread.
We even had a new leader this year, with ‘Home Alone’ taking the cake with 18 mentions (13%).
Our reigning champ, ‘Elf’ was dethroned but still the runner up, receiving 15 votes (11%).
In third place was the 2000 Jim Carrey-led ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ with 11 answers (8%).
Receiving 9 answers each (6.5%) were ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,’ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ and ‘The Santa Clause.’
‘A Christmas Story’ takes the next spot with 6 responses (4%), followed by ‘The Holiday’ with 5 (3.5%)
‘Die Hard’ and ‘White Christmas’ both received 4 responses each (3%).
Four different films received 3 responses (2%), those being ‘Four Christmases,’ ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ ‘The Polar Express,’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’
And five different films received 2 responses (1.5%), ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ the original animated ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas,’ ‘Love Actually,’ ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol,’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas.’
And rounding us out are 18 films that received a single response each (0.7%):
Arthur Christmas
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Bishop’s Wife
Bridget Jones’s Diary
A Christmas Carol (2009)
A Christmas Snow
Edward Scissorhands
The Family Stone
Frosty the Snowman
The Grinch
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
It’s a SpongeBob Christmas
Jack Frost
Jingle All the Way
Klaus
The Nativity Story
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
To Grandmother’s House We Go
My personal favorite falls in that 0.7%, so shoutout to whoever said ‘Arthur Christmas.’ They have good taste.
If you’ve read this far into the article, thank you! I wish you happiest of holidays, merriest of Christmases, and as always, happy watching!
