--- description: The 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life" is the most popular film, but especially popular with older Americans. title: These Are America's Favorite Christmas Movies – and Yes, 'Die Hard' Makes the List image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfdec6a15c6f75a1/6988922d3c163971d845d294/t100_movies_its-a-wonderful-life.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # These Are America's Favorite Christmas Movies – and Yes, 'Die Hard' Makes the List by [Gina Martinez](/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 25, 2018 8:47 PM CUT by [Gina Martinez](/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 25, 2018 8:47 PM CUT A new poll reveals that America’s favorite Christmas movie is _It’s a Wonderful Life_, barely edging out holiday classics _A Christmas Story_ and _Home Alone_. The poll, conducted by [Axios and SurveyMonkey,](https://www.axios.com/everyones-favorite-christmas-movies-surveymonkey-f6019eaf-4a4c-4d47-b634-26bcebb90706.html?utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=organic&utm%5Fcontent=1100 "undefined") found that the 1946 classic, starring James Stewart is the most popular film among the 35-year and older crowd, garnering 14% of overall votes, while 1990’s Christmas comedy _Home Alone_ (11%) ranks higher with teenagers and young adults. The poll also found that Christmas films like _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ (10% overall) and _Elf_ (9%) ranked higher with teenagers and Millenials, while older films like _National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation_ (11%) were more popular with Baby Boomers and Gen-Xer’s. Rounding off the top ten were _Miracle on 34th Street_ (7%), _A Charlie Brown Christmas_ (7%), action film _Die Hard_ (5%) and _Love Actually_ (3%). The results were from an online SurveyMonkey poll of 6,075 adults and more than 800 teens. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/"},"headline":"These Are America's Favorite Christmas Movies – and Yes, 'Die Hard' Makes the List","datePublished":"2018-12-25T20:47:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:36.593Z","description":"The 1946 classic, starring James Stewart is the most popular film among the 35-year and older crowd, while 1990's Christmas comedy \"Home Alone\" ranks higher with teenagers and young adults.","url":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/","keywords":["onetime","Holidays 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfdec6a15c6f75a1/6988922d3c163971d845d294/t100_movies_its-a-wonderful-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Gina Martinez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfdec6a15c6f75a1/6988922d3c163971d845d294/t100_movies_its-a-wonderful-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"t100_movies_its-a-wonderful-life","caption":"","creditText":"Everett","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/","name":"These Are America's Favorite Christmas Movies – and Yes, 'Die Hard' Makes the List"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"The 1946 classic, starring James Stewart is the most popular film among the 35-year and older crowd, while 1990's Christmas comedy \"Home Alone\" ranks higher with teenagers and young adults.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5488213/favorite-christmas-movie-poll/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```