As Christmas rolls around and the trees go up, Mariah Carey’s famous “It’s time!” signals the start of the holiday. During AGHS’ three-week break, students and teachers celebrate all sorts of traditions, whether making a special dish for dinner or going out of town to visit family, a common tradition involves watching Christmas movies. 

In a recent survey among students, 10 teachers were emailed a link to the survey to share in their Google Classrooms. From that survey, 257 students responded with their favorite Christmas movie. 

Some Christmas movies are more well-liked, and more well-known than others. The first in this list are the movies with the lowest votes, between one and five.

Next in the ranks are movies more commonly recognized, though not most people’s favorite, they are well-loved for the nostalgia they carry. The second on the list are movies with votes between six and ten.

An average of 13 votes ties these movies together, as the next in the ranks are movies that almost made it into the top four but fell just short of making it. 

Third and second runners-ups were very close, with only four votes separating them. Both movies were under half the amount of votes as the movie in first place.

Tim Burton, the creator of Nightmare Before Christmas, has stated that the movie is a Halloween movie, however, that is not to say that it doesn’t contain Christmas elements. Whether Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween or Christmas movie has been controversial since it came out.

Back to the ranks – the final top two Christmas movies were very close. With only five votes separating them, this is the second most popular and the ultimate Christmas movie. 

Among these votes were also a few stragglers that students added as their personal favorites including Klaus, Arthur Christmas, Daddy’s Home 2, Hot Frosty, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, It’s a Wonderful Life, Krampus, Christmas with the Kranks, Prancer, The Holiday, Love Actually, Violent Night, The Miser Brothers Christmas, Four Christmases, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Sakura’s Wonderful Christmas, and Mixed Nuts. 

Though not everyone watches these Christmas movies or likes them, this survey gave people a chance to reflect on movies they watch during the holiday season, and with the people they love. Overall, this survey by popular vote deduced that the ultimate Christmas movie is Home Alone, though Elf is right behind it.