1960s crowned BEST decade for Christmas movies – and here’s why

Despite being formulaic and (sometimes) cheesy, revisiting the same old Christmas movies each year doesn’t fail to help us ring in the Yuletide spirit as we indulge in the warm hit of nostalgic feelings.

But which year and decade produced the most memorable Christmas movies that hit all the right notes?

Intrigued, the nostalgia experts at BestBettingSites.com delved into factors such as the number of holiday film releases, average IMDb ratings and count of IMDb votes from 1960 to 2022 to reveal it all.

Key findings:

• The 1960s is crowned the GREATEST decade for Christmas movies, followed by the 1980s and 1990s

• 1990 claims the honor of being the best year for holiday films, marked by the iconic release of “Home Alone”

• Christmas movies of the 2010s seem to witness a drop in quality with an average IMDb rating of 5.92/10 – the lowest among all decades analysed.

The BEST decade for Christmas movies, ever

BestBettingSites.com can crown the 1960s as the best decade for Christmas movies, earning a final Christmassy score of 7.60/10. Despite having the fewest movies released before Hallmark and Netflix entered the Christmas movie landscape, films enjoyed exceptional IMDb ratings that era averaging 7.63/10. Packing a punch of nostalgia in the 60s Christmas movie repertoire are all-time favourites like “A Charlie Brown’s Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”

Securing the second position is the 1980s. From enduring classics like “A Christmas Story” to “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, holiday hits from the 80s have garnered the greatest engagement on IMDb, averaging over 56,000 votes. Also a decade for controversial holiday films, comedy horror “Gremlins” and action flick “Die Hard” have ignited perennial debates on their classifications as Christmas movies, with “Die Hard” heading back to the theatres this Christmas after almost four decades, proving its holly jolly status.

Following behind in third, Christmas movies in the 1990s (5.25/10) were evidently memorable, gifting us timeless classics ranging from dark fantasies like “The Nightmare before Christmas”, family-favourites such as “Home Alone”, “The Muppet Christmas Carol”, to heartwarming rom-coms like “While You Were Sleeping”, which all remain cherished to date.

Despite churning out 360 new festive releases in the 2010s, the quality of Christmas films appears to have declined with IMDB ratings averaging 5.92/10 and garnering only around 8,000 votes – a staggering 73% less than its preceding decade, the 2000s, which received 32,795 votes.

Top 10 best years for Christmas movies unwrapped

BestBettingSites.com can reveal that 1990 was the ultimate year for Christmas movies, scoring an exceptional Christmassy score of 8.64/10. The year where the “Home Alone” series started, it quickly became a huge hit further spawning two sequels, and was voted the most rewatched festive film of all time.

In second is 1983, marked by the release of holiday staples like “A Christmas Story” which garnered over 160,000 IMDb votes alone. Christmas movies scored remarkably on IMDb that year earning an average rating of 7.95/10, contributing to its final Christmassy score of 7.87/10.

Among the top five merriest movie years are 1988 (7.34/10) and 2003 (7.20/10), securing the third and fourth place respectively. The only year from the 20th century ranking highly in the list, 2003 has cemented itself as one of the landmark years for Christmas movies with the debut of a trio of modern classics that have since become unforgettable cult favorites: “Elf”, “Love Actually” and “Bad Santa”.

Featured Photo by Alin Surdu on Unsplash.