Everyone has a favorite holiday movie and often, it’s an emotional preference that lasts a lifetime. Sometimes the preference is generational, pegged to a certain time in the lives of viewers.
For Boomers, those indelible movies may be “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) or “White Christmas” (1954). For Gen X, the films “Home Alone” (1990) and “A Christmas Story” (1983) have become perennial favorites. For even younger Millennials, "Elf" (2003) and Jim Carrey’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000) seem to resonate.
And for those with a gambling streak, a movie that starts out at a racetrack and ends up as a holiday heart warmer is the “Lemon Drop Kid” (1951) about a colorful track tout and based on a Damon Runyon tale. Those familiar with Louisiana sports betting know the one.
Well, LouisianaBets.com wanted to determine what the regional preference might be for holiday films. So, Utilizing Google Trends, LouisianaBets.com analyzed the most popular Christmas movies of state residents by looking at the search results of each movie over the past three Christmases. The movies included the 40 most popular Christmas movies over the past year based on global traffic from AhRefs.com.
As it turned out, the top choice for Louisiana’s favorite Christmas movie was the more recent version of the Grinch – “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” starring Jim Carrey. That’s the live action version that followed in the successful footsteps of the Boris Karloff- narrated cartoon version (1966) of the Dr. Seuss story of misdeed and contrition. The latter-day Jim Carrey-Grinch topped out with a rank of 10 for “interest over time.”
No. 2 (rank of 9) on the Louisiana favorites list was “Home Alone” about young Macaulay Culkin thwarting funny bad guys Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, who are intent on a holiday burglary.
No. 3 (rank of 8) was “The Polar Express” (2004), a holiday fantasy starring Tom Hanks that mixes live actors and computer animation to tell the adventure of a magical train headed for the North Pole.
No. 4 (rank of 6) was “Elf” starring SNL cast member Will Ferrell in the role of a human raised as an elf who travels to New York City to find his real father.
And tied for No. 5 (rank of 5) were two quite different films, “A Christmas Story” (1983) and “Die Hard” (1988). Set in 1940 in Indiana, “A Christmas Story” tells of a boy’s infatuation with getting a BB rifle for Christmas. Meanwhile, “Die Hard” (1988) is actually a Bruce Willis action flick that happens to take place over Christmas featuring a not-to-missed portrayal by Alan Rickman as the main villain.
If you liked this story, look for more lifestlye pieces from LouisianaBets.com, including: Favorite TV Shows of 2023 in Louisiana.
Author
Jeff Parker is an entertainment writer for LouisianaBets.com. A writer for film, television and the internet, Jeff is a life long movie buff, with a Masters Degree in Popular Culture. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he works full time as documentary filmmaker and producer.
Cited by leading media organizations, such as:
