The holidays are a time of embracing tradition for many U.S. families, and TV viewing habits during the month of December certainly indicates this. Holiday movies are a regular fixture when it comes to celebrating the season, and networks like the Hallmark Channel and GAC tap into the holiday spirit with a fresh slate of features each year in addition to classics from their extensive libraries. More recently, streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video now have their own original productions added to the mix. However, this time of tradition is reflected by a set of evergreen titles that also make the top 10 every year.
Holiday features account for more than a third of movie viewing time in December
A wealth of holiday titles, both new and old, make up more than a third of the month’s total movie viewing, whether it’s marathons on linear TV or the deep libraries of the streaming platforms. While the exact percentage may vary a bit year to year, the one-third share of viewing benchmark has been consistent.
Holiday fan favorites
Looking across the past four Decembers, we see many of the same titles appear in the top 10, even if their positions may change a bit. These include A Christmas Story (consistently boosted by TBS and TNT’s annual “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” marathon), Elf, the Grinch films (both the live action and animated versions), The Santa Clause, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. But one movie in particular has almost always topped the list: Home Alone. This 1990 classic, with strong cross-generational appeal, has been the top-viewed holiday film in three of the last four Decembers.
In 2024, it was unseated from the number one slot by the Prime Video original Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson. The streaming platform had previously cracked the top 10 the prior year with Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, and has had the most success among native streamers in competing with the classic fan favorites. While Netflix hasn’t quite cracked the top 10 yet, it has had a few titles in the running the past couple of years, such as The Christmas Chronicles and That Christmas.
Finally, we’d be remiss not to mention the perennial debate about whether the 1988 action thriller Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Well, it seems viewers have embraced it as one, so we’ve included it as part of our analysis. And, in December of 2024, it landed just outside our top 10 rankings at number 11.
What’s trending so far this year?
We have already seen holiday titles popping up in our weekly top 10 streaming rankings during November, including the favorite classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas as well as newer Netflix originals A Merry Little Ex-Mas and Champagne Problems.
Stay tuned for updates coming in January. We will revisit these trends as the rankings for December settle—it will be interesting to see how much tradition factors into the results this time around.
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