Skip to footer

What's the best holiday movie of all time? We need your vote!

What will be crowned the best holiday movie ever? It's up to you. Vote in our poll!

|
Charles M. Schultz/Lee Mendolson Productions Inc./AP
'A Charlie Brown Christmas' follows Charlie Brown (l.) and Linus (r.) as they discover the true meaning of the holiday.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

From the story of a reindeer who uses his special strengths to lead Santa's team to the tale of a man who learns that "no man is a failure who has friends" to the story of a child who rides a magical train to go see Santa Claus, everyone has their favorite holiday film to watch year after year.

We've assembled a list of contenders that covers everything from legends of Santa Claus to overcoming the commercialism of Christmas. The oldest is the 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life," while the newest movie to make the cut is 2006's "The Nativity Story."

Many styles of film are represented as well, from the stop-motion animation of Rankin/Bass films like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to the traditional animation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and the performance capture computer animation of "The Polar Express."

And after the results came in for our poll on which "Christmas Carol" movie adaptation is the best ever, the only "Carol" version that made the cut is the 1951 film version starring Alastair Sim. (Sorry, George C. Scott and Muppet fans.)

So which movie is your favorite? Vote in our poll and we'll gather the results to share with all of you.

Make sure your top holiday movie doesn't get left behind. Have fun!

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to What's the best holiday movie of all time? We need your vote!
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2013/1203/What-s-the-best-holiday-movie-of-all-time-We-need-your-vote
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe