Happy POLLidays! (Happy POLLidays!) It's the ILX Holiday Movies Poll Results Thread

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Here we go! Sharing the top 40 holiday movies as voted on by (16) ILXors! 15 today and tomorrow, and wrapping up with the top 10 on Christmas Eve Eve.

(Before I begin, I wanted to once again thank Pillbox for providing the images for this rollout. I like to think of our poll collaborations as Bing Crosby tap dancing with Danny Fucking Kaye.)

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40. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
Tim Burton, USA, 1990
(146.5 points, 3 votes)

reminiscing about when Tim Burton was good is a very Christmasy kind of nostalgia

I’ve been hesitant to rewatch this one as an adult, probably due to Burton/Depp fatigue.

(love the rollout images theme, btw)

Small change of plans. Today's going to be the 10-title day, and we'll follow up with 15-title Friday and Monday.

Looking forward to this! Image theme looks A++++

I love how in edward scissorhands that bar is just a nook in the otherwise half-finished basement

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39. MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE
Nagisa Oshima, UK-Japan-New Zealand, 1983
(147 points, 3 votes)

Never got round to rewatching this as an adult.

This played on cable quite a bit when I was little and I remember wanting to watch it because I thought it was like A Christmas Story or something like that, but my mom was all (rightfully, I suspect) "Nope!"

I enjoyed my first viewing of it two Christmases ago, and the score has been on my Xmas rotation ever since.

Does any of it other than the last scene involve Christmas?

I can think of another movie in particular where that's also true.

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38. METROPOLITAN
Whit Stillman, USA, 1990
(149 points, 3 votes)

this is the only film I've ever seen that mentions my small hometown by name.

it's been a while since I watched it

wow, you're from Fourierist, Wisconsin?

East Aurora

hadn't noticed that this is on the criterion channel

I’m a fan, and I even recently rewatched, but it didn’t strike me as sufficiently Christmasy enough for me to include it on my ballot. What I do or do not deem “Christmasy” will be revealed to be highly arbitrary as this poll goes on, though.

same here. fan of this & scissorhands but would be lying if i said either was a favorite christmas movie. and if i lie too much, santa wont visit me.

I regret that we have a four-way tie at this point, but I'll unveil one at a time, in chronological order:

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34. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
Gunther von Fritsch & Robert Wise, USA, 1944
(154 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

39. MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE
Nagisa Oshima, UK-Japan-New Zealand, 1983
(147 points, 3 votes)

― temporarily embarrassed thousandaire (Eric H.), Thursday, December 19, 2019 10:42 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Prior to seeking out images for the screencaps, I was unaware that this even existed - a film in which David Bowie both eats a poinsettia & is buried up to his head in sand. I'm going to add it to my holiday-viewing list!

(Before I begin, I wanted to once again thank Pillbox for providing the images for this rollout. I like to think of our poll collaborations as Bing Crosby tap dancing with Danny Fucking Kaye.)

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happy to help!

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34. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
George Seaton, USA, 1947
(154 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

very surprised to see the low placement for this, tho at least its numerical rank is appropriate!

It's always been a little difficult for me to get too excited about this one, but a rewatch last year confirmed there's plenty of gags and plot points that'd go over kids' heads.

I don't think i ever made it all the way through that one.

Voted for Miracle; didn't vote for Cat People, mostly because it has been long enough since my last viewing that I can't recall its specific Christmas content.

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34. HOME ALONE
Chris Columbus, USA, 1990
(154 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

No real desire to revisit this one, but I’ll hear your defences of it.

The older I get, and the more popular moviemaking swirls down the drain of franchise-driven content wheels, the more fondness I have for mid-level broad-market entertainments tbh.

(In other words, it's better than I remembered, and the one in New York is somewhat worse than I'd remembered.)

#39 is a real reach (especially since Remember the Night is doomed), save for the gift that is the amazing beauty of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

I was just old enough in 1992 to fully comprehend the sequel as the most cynical possible rehash.

That said, I totally get where you’re coming from re: broad market vs. franchise moviemaking. When I found myself growing mildly nostalgic, a few years back, for John Grisham adaptations, I knew that Hollywood was definitely no longer making movies for me.

I still remember going to school the Monday after Home Alone came out, all of us having seen it and loved it.

As a kid, I remember being slightly disappointed that the wall-to-wall carnage promised by the trailers only gets rolling in the last 20 minutes or so.

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34. PHANTOM THREAD
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2017
(154 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

Me and my classmates all came to this conclusion xp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAz2Le8Xl0M

surprised at how much i liked home alone when i finally revisited it as an adult, very christmasy (before the mortal kombat brutality kicks in). also surprised that the carnage took up away less screen time than i remember.

helped that i saw it in a theater filled with kids who were my age when i first saw it, all of whom were waaay into it & it was very adorable hearing their shocked & amazed reactions. best moment was when daniel stern falls down the icy steps, which i think is very early in the sequence so the kids in the audience didnt know what they were in for yet, and when he landed after a long noisy painful fall you couldve heard a pin drop in the theater, except for one lone kid who I just heard very loudly whisper: "WHOOOOOA"

watched 2 recently, which sucked ass. funny comparing the "home alone" moment from each: in 1 kevin wakes up and its kind of magical bc he doesnt immediately understand what happened and is a little frightened. In 2 kevin lands at jfk, immediately realizes exactly what happened and that he has all of his dads credit cards, refuses an offer of help by some adults, and consciously & assholishly is like "im a lone in new york, sweet, time to go on a spending spree until they find me"

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33. A CHRISTMAS TALE
Arnaud Despleschin, France, 2008
(157 points, 3 votes, 1 first-place vote)

(I was the first-place vote on this.)

Still need to see this one.

me too

I think I just prefer the French take on the "my whole nutty family is in one house for a week and we're either going to kill each other or settle decades' long grudges" holiday staple.

helped that i saw it in a theater filled with kids who were my age when i first saw it, all of whom were waaay into it & it was very adorable hearing their shocked & amazed reactions. best moment was when daniel stern falls down the icy steps, which i think is very early in the sequence so the kids in the audience didnt know what they were in for yet, and when he landed after a long noisy painful fall you couldve heard a pin drop in the theater, except for one lone kid who I just heard very loudly whisper: "WHOOOOOA"

saw Home Alone once as a kid and never had any interest in rescreening but this is :D

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32. HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
Woody Allen, USA, 1986
(159 points, 3 votes)

i like Hannah v much

ranking below Miracle on 34th Street as a holiday film? bananas

Bananas is definitely not a Christmas movie.

OK, actually we'll do 11 tonight, since there's a tie at #30. Again, in chronological order:

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30. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S
Eric Rohmer, France, 1969
(161 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

didn't vote for Cat People, mostly because it has been long enough since my last viewing that I can't recall its specific Christmas content.

It's set during the holidays; the revenant (?) Irina sings the French carol "Il est né, le divin Enfant" (never mind that she was Serbian in the previous movie).

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30. KISS KISS BANG BANG
Shane Black, USA, 2005
(161 points, 3 votes) [TIE]

That's a wrap on day 1!

Xp yeah I remember seeing it the first time and being surprised that it’s not a horror movie at all, p much a straight up Christmas movie

Thanks, Eric. Drinks for everyone?
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I've never seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang yet. What is wrong with me etc (because it looks good). But had no idea it was part of some holiday movies canon. so thanks thread!

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Shamefully, I’ve never seen Maud. Didn’t think to vote for KKBB, but I like it.

Maud’s was my #1

(oops, sorry, forgot to designate that #1 vote)

Ive has it in my ‘to watch’ pile for months and haven’t gotten around to it, I had no idea it had a holiday element!

xp - on it, if you can get a mod to swap out the screencap.

That’s ok, it’s not important

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29. ELF
Jon Favreau, USA, 2003
(194 points, 4 votes)

Elf has a good number of very funny Will Ferrell moments but as a movie it is, tbh, kinda dumb and flimsy.

I actually haven't seen it. 2003 was the height of my "Will Ferrell isn't funny, people!" phase. I'll check it out with my future in-laws this weekend.

If that's the point you're starting from, Elf of all Will Ferrell films is probably unlikely to sway you.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang rules and is considerably more Christsmassy than several other placements. The world would be a better place if RDJ and Shane Black had just done a bunch more of those instead of getting dragged into the MCU.

can't imagine wanting to revisit Elf

Like a few seconds of this particular clip might be all I need from Elf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZnTC-epgcA

One of the movie's biggest problems is that it's just so weirdly/badly cast, pretty much across the board.

The idea that Elf is a classic Christmas film is a millennial conceit for people who didn't grow up with Tom Hanks's 'Big'

^ I like Elf okay, but this is pretty much otm.

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28. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION
Jeremiah S. Chechik, USA, 1989
(200 points, 4 votes)

find the Lampoons too successfully loathsome to revisit tbh

This one has enough goofball scenes to make it mildly amusing. My family and I use Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis jokes all the time.

There's a ton of stuff I like and even love about this movie and yet, somehow, I am very much not in its corner.

and Randy Quaid is...kinda terrific? I love his reaction to Brian Doyle-Murray's "And YOU'RE going to jail!"

As with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, most people are shocked/appalled to learn that I've only seen this holiday classic once all the way through and only relatively recently, at that.

shitter's full!

Also: stopping by to say that A Christmas Tale is my favorite Desplechin.

yeah i kind of want to be too cool for xmas vacation but i have to admit that i find it pretty funny, mostly due to really really good comedic performances rather than the actual scripted jokes.

alfred otm re: aunt bethany & uncle lewis are classic characters & very useful references in family joking situations

I just love riding in cars!

Aunt Bethany is for sure an eleventh-hour save.

A Christmas Tale is great and got my vote.

Let's play ball!

my appreciation for this is so entangled with nostalgia that it's probably not worth parsing, but I'm pretty sure this was the last instance of Chevy Chase being funny in a movie.

Yes. His double takes are excellent.

in my family when someone cant finish a thought, loses the thread or otherwise drifts off when talking, it is not unheard of for someone to yell "THE BLESSING!" at them

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKncYRJQRC8

in my family when someone cant finish a thought, loses the thread or otherwise drifts off when talking, it is not unheard of for someone to yell "THE BLESSING!" at them

― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open)

mine too!

Yes, this might be the all-time family-quoting movie.

I can't ever get past finding Chevy Chase utterly repellent, even if Clark Griswold is supposed to be on many levels horrible.

yeah his comedic style is predicated on him being a clueless dickhead, which he actually is in real life, so unless his sensibilities are channeled just so (Caddyshack, Fletch, og Vacation & NLCV, some early SNL), his persona just grates.

I like that, in Community, the joke was actually on him.

I stared at the list of his filmography as if at the remains of an electrocuted cat.

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27. BATMAN RETURNS
Tim Burton, USA, 1992
(201 points, 4 votes)

I have a copy of the first episode of The Chevy Chase Show which I just rewatched a bit of the other day. Highly, highly recommended. Among the most beautiful of trainwrecks.

Batman Returns didnt pass my arbitrary "is it christmassy enough" test, but man do i love that movie. maybe the only superhero/comic book movie that i enjoy

oh man, yeah, The Chevy Chase show was definitely one of the best worst ideas in modern cultural history. Did it even make it to episode #2?

xp

Best Batman movie, best performance in a Batman movie (Pfeiffer), most fun Pfeiffer performance.

definitely the highlight of Burton-era Batman, it's level of being Christmasy is incidental but palpable.

I dunno, Bruce Wayne spending the back half of the film dressed in a modified Santa suit and fighting the Penguin with an oversized candy cane felt pretty Christmas-y to me but ymmv.

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26. FAR FROM HEAVEN
Todd Haynes, USA, 2002
(202.5 points, 4 votes)

I dunno, Bruce Wayne spending the back half of the film dressed in a modified Santa suit and fighting the Penguin with an oversized candy cane felt pretty Christmas-y to me but ymmv.

dang, that is something I totally forgot about - time for a rewatch!

another great movie I don't recall the Christmas/holidays component of at all

xpost Please do not sue me when you discover upon rewatching that I have fudged the truth a lil.

lol

This was not the Todd Haynes movie I voted for.

that's probably my fave batman movie
Penguin robots!

xpost Oh right, totally forgot that Superstar was made using Elf on the Shelf dolls!

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25. THE ICE STORM
Ang Lee, USA, 1997
(205.5 points, 4 votes)

I legit get a little misty at the end of batman returns when the penguins give The Penguin a little penguin funeral

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25. THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
Joel Coen, USA, 1994
(215 points, 4 votes)

Ice Harvest > Ice Storm

I feel gratified by the critical reevaluation that The Huduscker Proxy has received in recent years, but I didn’t even consider it for this poll.

Only thing to show up so far today that I voted for is Christmas Vacation. I can think of few comedies—and certainly none since 1989–with so many classic supporting performances (to a fault, at times, I admit; does Diane Ladd even have any lines?).

She has a martini.

Or is that the biddy from ELR?

The latter iirc

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23. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Henson, USA, 1992
(230 points, 4 votes)

Sorry, that should be...

23. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Henson, USA, 1992
(230 points, 4 votes)

couldn't not give this lil guy a vote, surprised it's not higher

made my top 10

mine too.

I should see this sometime. I am a HUGE fan of the Henson era but my engagement with the Muppets material since then has been spotty and not particularly rewarding. But I've heard enough people say good things about this that I probably need to give it a fair shake.

(At least a couple of the Henson-era xmas entertainments (Emmet Otter and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street) aren't just at the top of my holiday viewing lists but are also among my all-time favorite cultural objects. So those are some big shoes.)

Christmas Carol is probably the only post-henson muppet thing that I really rate

I rate Muppets Most Wanted pretty highly tbh, probably even higher than Christmas Carol.

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22. LA GRANDE ILLUSION
Jean Renoir, France, 1937
(234 points, 4 votes)

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21. THE THIN MAN
W.S. Van Dyke, USA, 1934
(260.5 points, 5 votes, 1 first-place vote)

i like to watch at least one thin man movie every january during TCM's yearly blitz

as i've said, pictured scene is ideal Christmas morning

I've not seen this, but I love the novel!

i got a thin man box set and watched a bunch of them out of order, and theyre so similar that i completely lost track of which ones i have and havent seen, so to make sure i havent missed any ive got no recourse but to just watch through them all in order... not a bad problem to have

Only 21? ILX I am disappoint. (I cast that first-place vote.) The movie is toned down from the book, but I think it hits the sweet spot between hard-boiled crime drama (facing down increasingly more effective efforts to enforce the Hays Code) and the incoming screwball comedy genre.

As for La Grande Illusion, I'm pleased that people beside me remembered the Christmas element.

much of La Grande Illusion took place in winter, but it had only one actual Christmas scene! Still, it’s a great film, and was on my list

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20. MON ONCLE ANTOINE
Claude Jutra, Canada, 1971
(261 points, 5 votes)

QUEBEC REPRESENT

Great film, delighted it showed up here.

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19. CAROL
Todd Haynes, USA, 2015
(263 points, 5 votes)

who wants to share creamed spinach, poached eggs, and a couple martinis with me?

Mon Oncle Antoine pretty much a perfect film imho

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18. BRAZIL
Todd Haynes, UK-USA, 1985
(263.5 points, 5 votes)

damn Todd Haynes the MVP of this poll

Always wondered why Brazil seemed so Sirk-inspired. Shoulda read the credits!

Yeah yeah yeah...

We tease because we love.

Of the films from these results that I'm fairly familiar with, I have no memory whatsoever of the holiday elements in at least like half of them.

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17. BLACK CHRISTMAS
Bob Clark, Canada, 1974
(295 points, 5 votes, 1 first-place vote)

so haynes, burton, and (i'm assuming) bob clark are going to get two appearances... anybody else likely?

woulda said Black but Kiss Kiss should be highest

watched black christmas for the first time for this poll and didnt love it, but i think i'm just over enjoying 'procedural horror' slasher movies like this - the most interesting parts for me were the scenes showing what it actually looks like (used to anyway) tracing a call, the guy physically running up and down the rows of exchanges in some phone company machine room. Dont think i'd ever seen that depicted in a movie before, pretty neat

Black Christmas is an odd movie, but I find its quirks to be endearing & it ranked high on my list. It's arguably the prototypical slasher film, though the tropes of that subgenre were very much cast by Halloween (which Carpenter modeled heavily on BC, structurally at least), so it seems strangely anachronistic within the context of its own cultural significance.

i remarked on the noms thread, it was pretty fun seeing the Big Twist at the end and realizing that must have been the first time that now-cliche idea was used

Black Christmas is absolutely ice-cold and I love it.

Black Christmas is everything I want in a horror pic: funny, creepy, genuinely haunting and yet fun in a way that keeps it from being too grim or depressing. Also, a cast that includes Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and Doug McGrath from Goin’ Down the Road—a trifecta of 70s Canadian awesomeness!

c/d - the bumbling keystone cops in BC. I go back and forth on this.

Black Christmas is fine but, like The French Connection, its bones have been picked clean by the subgenre that it spawned.

i remarked on the noms thread, it was pretty fun seeing the Big Twist at the end and realizing that must have been the first time that now-cliche idea was used

yes, totally! I think it was the first time this idea was used in a film, possibly inspired by the real life murder of Janett Christman? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_babysitter_and_the_man_upstairs

it says right there: Foster's Release (1971)

granted that wasn't a feature film

Foster's Release is a 1971 American short film of 14 minutes directed by Terence H. Winkless... In Illinois, it is commonly shown to classes in home economics for whom it illustrates the concepts of responsibility and deviancy.

BC was my #1, "ice cold" is right. Anyone see the allegedly feminist 2nd remake?

Wow, reading that Fosters Release stars Dan Obannon, writer of Alien, and directed by the guy who played Bingo the Gorilla in the Banana Splits!

unsung pioneers, the lot of them!

new Black Christmas is fantastic, and "allegedly feminist" is insultingly reductive given the actual content and its extremely specific connection to real world events

ok!

wouldn't want to be flippant about a movie I haven't seen that features a specific connection to real-world events :)

SEE THAT U DON'T

anyway it's good but now that Star Wars is out, all the multiplexes in town have dropped it to one screening a day

Sorry for the delay before today's final entry ...

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16. TANGERINE
Sean Baker, USA, 2015
(300 points, 6 votes)

u guys really like recent overrated films

I'm not qualified to comment on this film, but thank you for completing the day's posting. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to have a drink.
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I loved Tangerine

I am also a sap who voted for tangerine, a pretty good xmas movie. Thanks Eric H and Pillbox!

regarding Foster's Release, there is very scant info online about it, and it is not on youtube (neither is Judson's Release, which it is also known by). It's unclear how it would have found itself onto the radar of Bob Clark, but it seems likely that it did play a formative role in Carpenter's ideas for Halloween:

The crown jewel of the program is a short by Winkless and Lorimore and starring O’Bannon entitled Judson’s Release. Made in 1971, Judson’s Release is the blueprint for films such as Halloween, Black Christmas, He Knows You’re Alone and countless others, and O’Bannon’s relentless and emotionless portrayal of the killer resembles Jason, Michael Myers and many other film killers who would follow.

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xp - l'chaim!

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these results are so weird

positively crawling up yr own asses with non canonical picks rmde

This is ILX. We identify ourselves by conspicuous contrarianism. (Will I think the same thing in the morning, when I'm sober? We'll see.

The older I get, and the more popular moviemaking swirls down the drain of franchise-driven content wheels, the more fondness I have for mid-level broad-market entertainments tbh.

― temporarily embarrassed thousandaire (Eric H.), Thursday, December 19, 2019 4:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

^otm - very well stated. The target-marketing & accompanying advertising campaign for Home Alone was absolutely immense for 1990, but quaint in comparison to our new, vertically-integrated corporate ouroboros.

xxp - VG, I think the main reason the results are 'weird' is that we only got 16 ballots for this poll, hence the 'non-canonical' quirks. A larger voter pool would have centered consensus picks more squarely.

The conspicuous contrarianism of picking such tedious obscurities as Home Alone, Miracle on 34tn St, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Elf, A Christmas Tale, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation as among the great holiday movies of all time. Rmde indeed.

Spoiler Alert: #1 is A Serbian Film

“None of the major canonical Christmas films have come up in spots 40 through 16... what a dumb poll”

blow it out your chimney

I was in my late 20s when Home Alone came out. I never saw it, because why would any single adult, ever?

Veg if none of your ballot of twenty have placed yet, maybe 3/4 of them will place on Monday (or whenever Eric is finishing)

Christmas Vacation should've been higher but didn't vote, won't moan. Whoever said Batman Returns is the only good comicbook movie ever is entirely correct, also another RIP Tim Burton moment.

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I think I'll hack away at #11-15 over the next couple days, leaving the top 10 for Monday.

34. Home Alone
Watching this as an adult, I noticed Hughes's excellect plotting. Everything in the last 20 minutes is meticulously set up. The doc on netflix is worth a watch too. also jack saint's recent youtube video on the movie's awful politics.

29. Elf
I love the north pole beginning, but then the family drama is a failure, and the ending isn't connected to anything else. James Caan and his character just don't work.

28. Christmas Vacation
Hughes's 50s nostalgia and class unconsciousness are front and center. It still has some good jokes, especially with the aunt and uncle towards the end. As an adult my favorite scene is the short discussion between Clark Griswold and his father.

23. Muppet Christmas Carol
I nominated this just so no one would complain about its absence. I think it was the weakest Muppet movie made up to that point.

21. The Thin Man
rewatched it this month. Two great characters right at the center, but nothing else works. great screengrab choice btw, that's my favorite scene.

As an adult my favorite scene is the short discussion between Clark Griswold and his father.

This and the scene Clark locked in the attic tearing up over old Christmas tapes are lovely, quietly moving moments inserted into the antic comedy without jarring the tone of the thing at all. For all of its TV-ish direction (I want to skip the sledding sequence every time, but this is one of those rare films that I never watch alone), there's a light touch to it that is all Hughes.

that youtube video i mentioned wasn't by jack saint, it was this one: https://youtu.be/9Pa8bRdDyW4

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15. TRADING PLACES
John Landis, USA, 1983
(337.5 points, 6 votes, 1 first-place vote)

Hughes's 50s nostalgia and class unconsciousness

Yes, this, very very this.

Nothing is more edifying to me than seeing the same list of canonical films over and over in a slightly different order each time so I find these results disappointing

I think I'll hack away at #11-15 over the next couple days, leaving the top 10 for Monday

A+ advent calendar simulation

One of the first movies I remember playing non-stop on cable. Definitely seen it in chunks over the years; dunno if I've ever actually sat down to watch it straight through (Three Amigos and Coming to America were my Landis jams).

my mum showed this film to me repeatedly because it has the line "I've got enough problems, Louie"

yeah, had a strong familiarity with this from cable before i ever watched it beginning to end.for a long period of my life i knew most or all of the various scenes and sequences, but wasnt 100% clear on what order they were supposed to go in

i had early little kid hetero-awakening lust for jamie lee curtis via trading places; can't have been older than 11

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14. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Henry Selick, USA, 1993
(348 points, 7 votes)

I watches Trading Places last night. Surprisingly homophobic even for an 80s movie.

Apologies for getting overwhelmed yesterday. It's a lucky top 13 today starting now!

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14. A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Desmond Hurst, UK, 1951
(360 points, 6 votes)

I wish more movies aped Nightmare Before Christmas' swift pacing/runtime

wow thought '51 Christmas carol would be top ten for sure

mum just asked why there is only one marley brother in this bbc adaptation of a christmas carol, correctly assuming that muppets christmas carol is the original text

— claire biddles (@msclairebiddles) December 22, 2019

Just been discussing Sim v George C Scott. Love both tbh

The last two were both in my top 5 - I grew up watching ACC 51 with my parents every year & the ghost of Christmas future haunted my dreams a child, so I had to include a reference to that in the screencap. ANBC is a unique reframing of timeless mythologies, and also the high watermark for modern stop-motion animation imo (tho the Laika films give it a run for its money).

Selick wrote and directed Coraline for Laika, though (and then signed an exclusive contract with Disney to do stop motion films for them, all of which they've currently canned)

The award-winning short Moongirl for Laika, too.

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12. EYES WIDE SHUT
Stanley Kubrick, USA-UK, 1999
(372.5 points, 7 votes)

I must say the soundstage element lends a creepy snowglobe aesthetic that makes it feel more Christmassy than the text would suggest

Well put! I really wish I’d managed to see this in the cinema when it came around earlier this month

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11. BAD SANTA
Terry Zwigoff, USA, 2003
(381 points, 7 votes)

I should see this sometime.

I saw Eyes Wide Shut in Perth, WA, having smoked some very strong weed. It's probably the most intense cinema experience I've ever had and I'm basically scared to watch it again.

Too low, srsly

If i'd've got it together to vote i'd've put Bad Santa top 5. First place would feel wrong but it's great and a necessary corrective to schmaltz and still engaged with the double feeling of the sociopolitical concept of Christmas in a way that a bunch of these films aren't really.

yes, it’s extremely “about” Christmas, in multiple ways

I haven't seen any of 2003's three now-beloved Xmas movies (the third of which I'm going to assume won't place here).

Part of the initial appeal of it for me was that it felt like it came out of nowhere, in that I was expecting more along the lines of other “Bad ___” films — this Santa is outrageous! He smokes and swears! And what I got was one of those ultra-hardboiled comedies that is nearly impossible to get right (I think Shane Black’s the nice guys is another, tho I’d need to rewatch to see just how right it gets it)

RIP Bernie Mac & John Ritter - both were in top form in Bad Santa (as were all the other actors in it tbh)

The sequel is a fuckin shame

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10. DIE HARD
John McTiernan, USA, 2003
(388 points, 7 votes, 1 first-place vote)

METHINKS YOU POSTED THIS TO THE WRONG LIST SIR

Well, I'm glad we finally solved that.

Hans... BUBBE

lol I was a bit taken aback when “die hard is a Christmas movie lolol” and attendant backlash became a thing, because it just clearly and organically is, the same way a bunch of these are. I posted this the last time it came up I think but I watched half of it’s a wonderful life and there was like no Xmas content at all except a vague ripoff of ACC. The rules don’t even need to be very porous for die hard to count! I also really like it, one of my fave action movies

Ice Harvest is also better than Bad Santa

It's set at Christmastime and it has Run-D.M.C.'s "Christmas in Hollis," so I count it.

(xp)

And it feels Christmassy and is on tv every Christmas and everyone likes it and a guy says hohoho and half the soundtrack is Christmas songs qed but I guess “bacon people” also say so, making it untrue

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09. THE APARTMENT
Billy Wilder, USA, 1960
(390 points, 7 votes, 2 first-place votes)

die hard literally full of nonstop Christmas images and signifiers, way more Christmas content than many films on this list, incl the likely #1

Ice Harvest is also better than Bad Santa

I dunno. I liked it (and to this day I still have lingering John Cusack feels). It does feel notably mature (if not tragic) compared to its contemporaries. But IH comes across too much as producers trying to replicate the BS phenomenon. Not as blatantly as certain other titles, but....

Literally never heard of ice harvest

Legit forgot to vote for The Apartment.

Starting to feel like The Silent Partner's not going to make it lol

The Apartment too low

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08. A CHRISTMAS STORY
Bob Clark, USA, 1983
(391 points, 7 votes)

somehow I've never seen this either, but mad respect to Bob Clark, the true winner of this poll

If only Deathdream were set at Christmas...

due to extreme cable TV overexposure i don't know if i could ever enjoy watching this again, but voted for it nonetheless

This poll resolves for me that I would much rather spend my holidays with Bob Clark than Todd Haynes.

i just realized that ive been confusing the ice harvest with the ice storm all this time, was pretty baffled at the bad santa comparisons for a minute there

I'm shocked Bad Santa placed so low. Thought it would win in a landslide.

Bad Santa is overrated tbh

mad respect to Bob Clark, the true winner of this poll

Well...

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07. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
John Hughes, USA, 1987
(396 points, 7 votes, 1 first-place vote)

Flirted with giving Eyes Wide Shut my #1 vote for awhile. Still not convinced I shouldn't have.

Candy reading that book is such a great gag, I love it

This is the only Hughes I still like

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06. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1944
(414 points, 7 votes)

Another movie where most of it has nothing to do with Christmas, but when it does, blows everything else out of the water.

Taking a break before running down the top 5 this evening.

Adore PT&A but didn't vote for it for the simple reason that, as a Canadian, Thanksgiving has nothing to do with Christmas for me.

Had never seen MMiSL until last year, but its already one of those I can imagine watching every year.

am a considerable fan of Martin and Candy but have never seen PT&A cuz Hughes irritates me

PT&A is pretty much the best Hughes movie, as definitive as his teen movies are, they all have a significant flaw (with 16 Candles, the racism; with Ferris Bueller, refusing to make him the villain; with Breakfast Club, the makeover; with Pretty in Pink, pairing the protagonist with the asshole), whereas this one is all gold.

The Apartment too low

my #1!

Morbs I can’t really hang with a lot of Hughes either but you might enjoy pt&a, a lot of the humor is pretty pitch black & it’s a pretty great showcase for Candy, he has a lot of perfect little performance moments in it.

those snowmen in st. louis are so hollywood.

Despite seeing it several times I remember almost nothing about Meet Me in St. Louis, except that I thought it was surreal and wonderful.

it's a Halloween movie too!

https://i.gifer.com/A99K.gif

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05. SCROOGED
Richard Donner, USA, 1988
(430 points, 8 votes)

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04. GREMLINS
Richard Donner, USA, 1988
(495.5 points, 9 votes, 1 first-place vote)

i love scrooged so much. Karen Allen is a joy and a wonder.

gremlins is good but i have never rly embraced it as a christmas movie

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rellimzone.com%2Fimages%2Fmovies%2Fgremlins-1984-10.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

damn, Richard Donner the MVP of this poll

Wow double-Donnered!

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03. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
John Carpenter, Taiwan, 1915
(530 points, 9 votes, 3 first-place votes)

Michael O'Donoghue curses you Scrooged fans (and Bill Murray) from biker heaven

Lubitsch's position and his cigar look kind of obscene there

so good

gonna watch it again tomorrow morning over copious French press coffee cups

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as former ilxor ghost rider once pointed out, Mr Matuschek's store seems overstaffed

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i love that oh chichonia song (sp?)

My #1. A perfect movie.

There are no words to describe what Margaret Sullavan wrings out of that husk in her voice.

lol Eric :)

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02. FANNY & ALEXANDER
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden-France-West Germany, 1982
(575 points, 10 votes)

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01. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Frank Capra, USA, 1946
(702 points, 12 votes, 1 first-place vote)

Endured a colorized version yesterday, almost as easy to tune out as the Fanny parts of the Bergman film.

I like that all the signage is Hungarian. xxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnoCI2N9nWw

Just finished watching Shop and it really is near perfect. Felix Bressartt gets all the best laugh lines imo.

Was considering putting Bergman at #1, decided on Wonderful Life instead... cant believe I was the only one!

HoW Do yOU sPeLL FrANkiNsCenSE?

Thanks for throwing the party, Eric.

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Yes thanks Eric & Pillbox for a great poll & rollout! Got me to watch some good xmas stuff I hadn’t seen before

lovely poll and rollout even if many of my faves were robbed (Silent Night Deadly Night!!!)

sorry can we run this again after I've had a chance to see this

Johnny Mak's Long Arm of the Law (1984) is, yes, a Christmas movie, and the only one I know that features a shot-up body plunging multiple stories to land and carom around in a mall ice skating rink, leaving a trail of gore in its wake. pic.twitter.com/TTzFnxhwPc

— ℑ 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲 (@NickPinkerton) December 23, 2019

The first part of the Tv version of Fanny and Alexander is the most sumptuously 'Christmassy' thing i've ever seen. Weirdly Eyes Wide Shut almost matches it. I wonder if some of that 'fairy lights in every shot' thing Kubes was going for, was in any way indebted to Bergman.

When I voted for F&A, I was really voting for the opening chapter of the TV version.

That very first glimpse of Clarence is perfect; one of the all-time great character intro shots

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Thanks for putting this together.

1. Comfort and Joy (Bill Forsyth)
2. A Christmas Carol (1951)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life
4. Going My Way
5. The Shop Around the Corner
6. The Apartment
7. The Ice Storm
8. Fanny and Alexander
9. Hannah and Her Sisters
10. Mon Oncle Antoine
11. Gremlins

Same as other genre polls--I tried to balance how much I liked a film with how Christmassy it felt to me. I should have nominated and voted for Meet John Doe.

bold did not place

1. "Peace on Earth" (1939)
Meet Me in St. Louis #6
It's a Wonderful Life #1
The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
Bad Santa (2003) #11

A Christmas Story #8
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) #3
A Christmas Carol (1951) a.k.a. Scrooge #14
Elf #29
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) #14

29th Street
A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas
Krampus (2015)
The Grinch
Ernest Saves Christmas

Edward Scissorhands #40
Fanny and Alexander #2
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence #39
Remember the Night
Mon oncle Antoine #20

Scrooged #5
"Pluto's Christmas Tree"
"Toy Tinkers"
3 Godfathers
25. 8 Women

yeah, Remember the Night, for godssake

i also see a Bob Hope film i haven't watched

1. The Shop Around the Corner
2. Fanny & Alexander
3. It’s a Wonderful Life
4. Gremlins
5. Meet Me in St. Louis
6. Mon Oncle Antoine
7. Black Christmas
8. A Christmas Story
9. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
10. Gift Wrapped
11. Die Hard
12. Miracle on 34th Street (1945)
13. Remember the Night
14. Scrooged
15. The Bells of St. Mary’s

Thanks, Eric!

Yeah great poll, wish i'd had time to vote.

I saw Scrooged in a theater. I thought Murray's performance was just loud and annoying and the whole movie was like an SNL skit that went on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. And it had the usual Hollywood 30 minutes of "climax" where you knew it was the climax because it was twice as loud and annoying.

I think Comfort and Joy (Clemenza's #1) is a nice little movie with many funny moments. However, it is pretty slight overall and when it reaches for pathos it never gets there. But I didn't cast a ballot, so consider this post as mere sour grapes.

bold DNP

Black Christmas (1974)
Silent Partner (1978)
Mon oncle Antoine
Eyes Wide Shut
Brazil
Meet Me in St. Louis
Silent Night, Deadly Night
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Fanny and Alexander
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
A Christmas Tale (2008)
The Hudsucker Proxy
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The Thin Man
Trading Places
Scrooged
Big Business (1929)
Compliments of the Season (1930)
The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1933)
Jack Frost (1934)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Bad Santa (2003)
La Petite Marchande d'Allumettes (1928)
Hell's Heroes (1930)
The Night Before Christmas (1933)
Holiday (1930)
Babes in Toyland (1934)
The Curse of the Cat People
Carol
Far From Heaven (2002)
Two Men in Manhattan
The Unholy Three (1925)
The Unholy Three (1930)
Little Women (1933)
Poisoned Ivory (1934)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Die Hard

thx, j.lu, for the Edgar Kennedy

also shame on the rest of you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWdKYiewpVY

^I think the best Xmas movie Leo McCarey worked on, but you fuckers didn't vote for The Bells of St Mary's either

I did!

u r absolved

It is Christmas Eve, so I have just rewatched The Thin Man. I stand by my first-place vote.

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If only there was a way for movies dr morbius likes to get voted for... if only....

I don't know when you last saw Comfort and Joy, aimless, but if it's been a while, I think you should look at it again. I think it's more profound than the work of some other much more famous directors whose profundity escapes me. (I have two in particular in mind, and no, I won't name them.)

Aimless I feel you re:Scrooged, that’s one that never clicked with me, despite a couple tries over the years

I tried to see Comfort and Joy for this poll, but it wasn’t available via any of my streaming services or libraries.

I liked Scrooged better as a Christmas horror film than as a Christmas comedy. Voted for it mainly on the strength of some indelible images and a strong cast.

Yeah, I think it's hard to get hold of--all I can see is Region 2 stuff from Amazon. Did find this appreciation:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/06/jonathan-coe-comfort-joy-forsyth

HOME ALONE: Two-thirds of this is a modest, sweet, surprisingly affecting Christmas movie. One of third it is Tom & Jerry's Straw Dogs, and it is really impossible to express how fucking weird that is.

— The Zack of Christmas Yet To Come (@zhandlen) December 8, 2019

Yeah I watched it last night and was roaring at the pay-off then I missed Tom and Jerry

yeah catherine ohara really is phenomenal in HA1, low-key one of her best performances imo

tried to see Comfort and Joy for this poll, but it wasn’t available via any of my streaming services or libraries.

Watching it on Hoopla rn (apparently from a pan & scan NTSC-converted VHS transfer)

thank you Eric! I enjoyed seeing the results

and Pillbox!

Watched Elf again on Christmas eve with my family. There are a lot of good lines, and I always like “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" at the end

I had a "no Elf, no Home Alone" rule this year. I like Elf but not enough for it to be an annual tradition.

the narwhal's sad-voiced "bye buddy, hope you find your dad" is my new favorite line from Elf

didn't remember until seeing it again that "Baby It's Cold Outside" features in a scene

My Night at Maud’s
Carol
La Grande illusion
Fanny and Alexander
Tangerine

2046
The Apartment
Eyes Wide Shut
The Shop Around the Corner
Far From Heaven

Call Me By Your Name
Boogie Nights
The Ice Storm
A Tale of Winter
Hannah and Her Sisters

It’s a Wonderful Life
Metropolitan
Phantom Thread
Holiday (1938)
Mon Oncle Antoine

LA Confidential
Joyeux Noël
A Christmas Tale
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Elf

Dan S: Does Boogie Nights have anything Christmas-related? There's the big New Year's Eve sequence ("Goodbye '70s, Hello '80s"), but I've seen it a bunch of times and I'm not remembering anything having to do with Christmas.

agree it's not really a holiday film. what I remember besides the New Year's Eve party scene is the donut shop shoot-out scene where Don Cheadle gets an unexpected Christmas gift

Forgot about that, you're right.

Those who didn't vibe with Scrooged: try again. I wasn't that into it for the longest time but now I don't go a holiday season without rewatching it.

Just finished watching Wonderful Life in its entirety for the first time in many years. I might agree with its placing here. It seems to have become more affecting in my dotage.

Forgot to share the full results spreadsheet:

https://bit.ly/37myWBZ

If it had been a top 50...

41. Remember the Night
42. Female Trouble
43. Blast of Silence
44. 2046
45. Krampus (2015)
46. A Junky's Christmas
47. Home for the Holidays
48. A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas
49. Call Me by Your Name
50. Inside (2007)

Goddamnit...how did I forget that Cobra is a Christmas movie?