It’s the most wonderful time of the year to watch Christmas movies.
From Netflix’s incredible offering of cheese and festive cheer to countless reruns of the best (and worst) holiday movies on free-to-air TV.
But, have you ever wondered what the best Christmas film of all time is? Well, we did and now we know.
A little drummer drumroll, please…
According to OnBuy.com, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey, is the most Christmassy film of all time. Interested in finding the films that fill us with the most festive spirit, they created a “Christmas film Index”. Using a points-based system, each movie was ranked on festive elements in the movies, such as the number of Christmas trees and how many times Santa appears.
With 586 points, Carey’s Grinchy Christmas beat out the likes of 2018’s Dr Seuss’ The Grinch followed by a fan (and my personal) favourite, Love Actually.
Scoring only 97 points, the least Christmassy film of all time is the musical White Christmas, only scoring well due to the number of times the word “Christmas” was uttered.
Rounding out the top five were: Nativity, Miracle on 34th Street and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.
If you are wondering where Will Ferrell’s Elf sits on the scale of festivity, it actually ranks at number 10, which is surprising given its content. We believe it’s because of the lack of Christmas musical style songs…
The 16 films analysed by OnBuy.com were: How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Dr. Seuss’ the Grinch (2018), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Polar Express (2004), Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Love Actually (2003), Nativity (2009), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Jingle All the Way (1996), Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Elf (2003), Home Alone (1990), Deck the Halls (2006), Scrooged (1988), Jack Frost (1998) and White Christmas (1954).
Three points were awarded for the following variables: each time ‘Ho Ho Ho’ was said, each time a Christmas song was played, each time a scene had a Christmas tree, each time a scene had presents, each time Santa appeared or each time a scene had someone come down a chimney.
Now, this is a survey we can get behind.