Stephen Smysnuik
Neil Malik
What is the greatest Christmas movie of all time?
Photo via Shutterstock
The Topline
- For Christmas this year, we’re setting aside the biggest issues that define our time to explore something of true importance: which holiday movie earns the crown of best ever
- Our publisher and our editor sound off. Only one of them is right about this. Who is it?
Home Alone is the greatest Christmas movie of all time
There are so many memorable lines in Home Alone that I still use in my daily life, outside of the Christmas season: “Fuller, go easy on the Pepsi!” “Look what’cha did, ya little jerk.” “You’re what the French call les incompétents.” And so on.
I have no idea if I find the writing in Home Alone so effective and hilarious because I was essentially raised on this movie, or I was essentially raised on this movie because the writing is so effective and hilarious. It’s one of the earliest examples of excellent screenwriting that inspired me, as a wee lad, to become a writer myself. It is just a perfect screenplay. Thank you, John Hughes (who, it must be noted, also wrote the screenplay for the movie Neil reps on the other side ).
My family watched Home Alone every year – it was the one kid-oriented movie that my parents actually wanted to watch. It works on multiple levels; there’s slapstick silliness, there are some inspired nuggets of wisdom, and there are jokes that only adults will understand. These are the hallmarks of a perfect family movie.
Obviously it’s not just the writing that makes Home Alone such an endearing classic. The set design is immaculate – that house is like a perfect physical manifestation of a kid’s imagination. The score is perfect. This scene? Man.
Then there’s the cast. Macaulay Culkin carries this movie in a way that is almost supernatural for a 10-year-old. Everyone else is perfect as well – Joe Pesci as the grouchy, grizzled brains of the Wet Bandits operation; Daniel Stern as his lurching, bumbling sidekick; whoever that guy is who plays Buzz, Kevin’s bully brother; and Catherine O’Hara in what is obviously her finest performance ever (“ Kevin! ”). You also have John Candy in there for a bit! Everyone loves John Candy.
In fact, Candy fills an essential role in the film, which gets to what really makes Home Alone a perfect film – at the centre of it all, this movie has heart. This is a film about family and togetherness, which is what Christmas is all about anyway. Heck, it’s what life is all about.
This isn’t just the greatest Christmas movie. It’s also the greatest family movie, and one of the finest comedies of the '90s. It was a gigantic hit for a reason. Culkin was inescapable for a few years afterwards because of it. It was a cultural phenomenon in a way that no other Christmas was or has been since.
As a side note, one of the ideas discussed for this story was “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” Thankfully, we didn’t pursue it because Culkin weighed in on this recently, with what I think is the ultimate slam-dunk answer: It is not a Christmas movie because the film works regardless of when it is set. The holiday does not set into motion any of the film’s plot points, so it is therefore not a Christmas movie.
Really makes you think.
Christmas Vacation is the greatest Christmas movie of all time
First released in 1989, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation received a lukewarm response from critics.
Yet, 36 years later, a 2025 Forbes analysis citing Samba TV data found Christmas Vacation was the most-watched Christmas movie in the United States this holiday season. And on Rotten Tomatoes, it's at 86 per cent on the Popcorn Meter (vs. 80 per cent for Home Alone , just sayin’).
And it's obvious why. When you look past the chaos, Christmas Vacation is the perfect feel-good holiday story.
Clark Griswold wants nothing more than to host a flawless Christmas for his extended family. That’s admirable, especially with the cost of groceries these days.
The movie’s genius lies in how everything turns into comical disaster. The malfunctioning Christmas lights. The irritating cousin. The dry turkey. The non-existent Christmas bonus. We’ve all been there.
Shows like Seinfeld and The Simpsons prove that if you can still quote the jokes decades later, it transcends time to become a cultural classic. Christmas Vacation does just that.
Exhibit A: When Clark’s Christmas lights fail to light up after hours of painstaking work, Clark’s mother-in-law snorts in disapproval.
Clark’s daughter, in defence of her dad: “He worked really hard, grandma.”
Clark’s father-in-law: “So do washing machines.”
Savage.
Exhibit B: Nearly deaf 80-year-old Aunt Bethany is asked to say grace before Christmas dinner. I can’t do it justice. Watch it for yourself .
Christmas Vacation’s staying power comes from something most Christmas movies avoid: honesty.
Christmas is stressful. It’s expensive. It’s loud. Clark isn’t chasing joy – he’s chasing perfection. And that’s what makes him funny, relatable, and increasingly relevant in an era of rising costs and sky-high expectations.
It's also why Christmas Vacation has aged so well. It doesn’t depend on innocence or nostalgia. It depends on reality.
Thirty-six years later, in the midst of holiday chaos, you can pour yourself a moose mug of eggnog, cozy up on the couch, turn it on, relate to it, and remind yourself that yes, Christmas is stressful and no, it’s not just you trying to chase perfection for your family.
In the end, the “best” Christmas movie isn’t the one that makes you feel warm and fuzzy. It’s the one that survives changing tastes, rising stress, and another exhausting year – but still feels true.
