Christmas Movie Bracket: Rank the Holiday Classics
All 24 films here, ranked by 89 players. Home Alone leads: it wins 77.5% of its matchups (n = 276) and was champion in 18 of 89 brackets. Disagree? Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York1992
The Nightmare Before Christmas1993
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Christmas Movies: the community’s best
Win rate across 1,823 head-to-head picks from 89 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Christmas movie | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Home Alone1990 | 214–62 | 77.5% | 18 | 276 | |
| 2 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas2000 | 143–71 | 66.8% | 10 | 214 | |
| 3 | Elf2003 | 136–73 | 65.1% | 8 | 209 | |
| 4 | The Polar Express2004 | 116–71 | 62% | 8 | 187 | |
| 5 | Home Alone 2: Lost in New York1992 | 127–80 | 61.4% | 6 | 207 | |
| 6 | The Nightmare Before Christmas1993 | 114–75 | 60.3% | 6 | 189 | |
| 7 | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation1989 | 100–75 | 57.1% | 6 | 175 | |
| 8 | The Santa Clause1994 | 91–72 | 55.8% | 3 | 163 |
Christmas Movies: the community tier list
From 1,823 head-to-head picks in 89 finished brackets. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Home Alone
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Elf
- The Polar Express
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- The Santa Clause
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- The Muppet Christmas Carol
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- A Christmas Story
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Die Hard
- A Christmas Carol
- Gremlins
- Jingle All the Way
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- It's a Wonderful Life
- Klaus
- The Holiday
- Scrooged
- Miracle on 34th Street
- Love Actually
- White Christmas
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Bad Santa
How the Christmas Movies bracket works
This Christmas movie bracket is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Home Alone or Die Hard? Elf or It's a Wonderful Life? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. A straight list invites you to hedge. A matchup does not, and that is what makes the final 24-deep order worth screenshotting.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 24 films. The draw is seeded: the same for everyone today, different tomorrow, and different again whenever you press New draw. You can also play it at 8 or 24 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 24 entrants
All 24 entrants are listed below, including Home Alone, Die Hard, Elf and It's a Wonderful Life. Updated
- Home Alone1990
- Die Hard1988
- Elf2003
- It's a Wonderful Life1946
- A Christmas Story1983
- The Nightmare Before Christmas1993
- Love Actually2003
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation1989
- The Polar Express2004
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas2000
- A Charlie Brown Christmas1965
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer1964
- The Santa Clause1994
- Miracle on 34th Street1947
- White Christmas1954
- Scrooged1988
- The Muppet Christmas Carol1992
- Jingle All the Way1996
- Bad Santa2003
- The Holiday2006
- Klaus2019
- A Christmas Carol2009
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York1992
- Gremlins1984
Tier list instead?
Load all 24 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own Christmas movie bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Pick the film you would actually rewatch tonight, not the one with the better reputation.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 24 so more of the 24 films make the field.
- Use undo the moment you regret a pick. One reflex answer in an early round can knock out a favourite before it gets going.
Questions people ask
What is the best Christmas movie?
According to 89 BracketRanker players, Home Alone (1990). It wins 77.5% of its head-to-head matchups (n = 276) and was champion in 18 of 89 brackets (20.2%).
How many films are in the Christmas Movies bracket?
The pool holds 24 films. A default run uses 16 of them and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 24 slots.
Which films are included?
Home Alone, Die Hard, Elf, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Love Actually, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, plus 12 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Christmas Movies bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. No account is needed, and a run saves after every pick, so you can stop and jump back in later.
Can I turn the result into S/A/B tiers?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other film grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two films that never met. If you would rather place the films into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 24 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Can I compare my order with other people's?
Every completed bracket feeds the Christmas Movies community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 24 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
What if a film I wanted is missing?
Use the bracket maker: add your own films, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 24 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.