Entertainment

The Top Rotten Tomatoes Christmas Movies Will Keep You Busy Your Entire Holiday Break

by Ani Bundel
20th Century Fox

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The weather temperatures have dropped and snow is on the ground in more than a few states. The Christmas lights are up, the sun sets at 4:30 p.m., and basically no one wants to leave the house after they get home from work... not even for holiday shopping. There's only one way to handle it: by overdosing on Christmas movies. But with so many options, which ones should you choose to watch? Thankfully, the best movie internet rating system is here to help. The top Rotten Tomatoes Christmas movies guide has arrived right on time.

Rotten Tomatoes is one of those websites started back during the Web 1.0 days. The review aggregation site has been rating movies since 1998. Twenty years later, it's considered both the go-to for the moviegoers looking to see how a film's reviews are leaning as well as the bane of studios who get mad when their film's flop is displayed via numerical algorithm for all to look upon.

Over the decades of the site's existence, those aggregating reviews have gone back through the years of movie history and rated classic films along with new releases, including nearly every Christmas film ever made. Now, the site has taken those ratings and turned it into The Top 50 Christmas Movies.

For those looking to do one film a night, 50 is a little much. You would have had to have started back on Nov. 5, before the election even happened, to fit them all in. Luckily, there's just under a month left, so with a little bit of picking and choosing, one can work their way to the Top 10 in time for the holiday.

Here are the Top 10 films from the list:

  1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - 93 percent
  2. Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) - 100 percent
  3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - 96 percent
  4. Holiday Inn (1942) - 100 percent
  5. The Shop Around The Corner (1940) - 100 percent
  6. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - 95 percent
  7. Babes in Toyland (1934) - 100 percent
  8. The Apartment (1960) - 94 percent
  9. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1967) - 100 percent
  10. Remember The Night (1940) - 100 percent

While the list has films ranging from 2017's The Man Who Invented Christmas all the way back to 1934's Babes In Toyland, it's notable six of the Top 10 films are from the 1940s. The most recent film is The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it's 25 years old.

Some other notes:

  • Die Hard (1988) lands just outside the Top 10 at No. 11. A Christmas Story sits at 13.
  • The most recent, highest-ranked film on the list is 2017's Better Watch Out, clocking in at 22.
  • Elf is perfectly positioned at the halfway point, No. 25.
  • Tim Burton has three entries: Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands (14), and Batman Returns (28).
  • My personal favorite, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas (1977) ranks at 31, beating out The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), which lands at 36.
  • Love Actually lands at 44. The bottom of the list? 1969's Frosty The Snowman.

Check out the whole list here, and happy binge-watching!