favorite christmas movie

The Favorite Christmas Movie of Each US State

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The holidays are upon me, and that means it’s time to cue up my favorite Christmas movies to get into the spirit of things. And with so much uncertainty surrounding this year’s season, I’ll have all the time I could want to watch my favorite Christmas movies.

Not sure which to watch? Using data from Google Trends and Rotten Tomatoes, we partnered with Mindnet Analytics to take a look at each state’s favorite Christmas movies. In addition, we took a look at overall interest in Christmas movies across states.

Check out the results below.

Interesting Findings

  • It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas appear the most for traditional Christmas movies, while Gremlins, Die Hard, and Batman Returns are movies you might not expect that appear at the top of many states’ lists
  • Gremlins and Bad Santa are tied for the Christmas movie most states are obsessed with, winning in 4 states
  • Batman Returns, Die Hard, It’s a Wonderful Life, Love Actually, The Best Man Holiday, Trading Places, and White Christmas all appear at the top of the list for 3 states each
  • West Virginia and Utah tie for showing the most interest in holiday movies, followed closely by Indiana, Kentucky, and Idaho
  • Washington DC shows the least interest in Christmas movies, followed by Hawaii, Florida, Virginia, California, Georgia, and Louisiana
Interest in Christmas Movies

Favorite Christmas Movie by State

StateHoliday Movie Most Obsessed with
AlabamaBad Santa
AlaskaLove Actually
ArizonaBad Santa
ArkansasGremlins
CaliforniaBatman Returns
ColoradoWhite Christmas
ConnecticutChristmas in Connecticut
DelawareBlack Christmas
District Of ColumbiaTrading Places
FloridaBatman Returns
GeorgiaThe Best Man Holiday
HawaiiLove Actually
IdahoThe Ref
IllinoisIt’s a Wonderful Life
IndianaA Christmas Story
IowaDie Hard
KansasBad Santa
KentuckyBabes In Toyland
LouisianaGremlins
MaineMiracle on 34th Street
MarylandThe Best Man Holiday
MassachusettsLove Actually
MichiganHoliday Inn
MinnesotaWhite Christmas
MississippiThe Best Man Holiday
MissouriDie Hard
MontanaA Christmas Story
NebraskaDie Hard
NevadaBad Santa
New HampshireScrooged
New JerseyTrading Places
New MexicoEdward Scissorhands
New YorkThe Apartment
North CarolinaHome Alone
North DakotaRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
OhioWhite Christmas
OklahomaGremlins
OregonBabes In Toyland
PennsylvaniaTrading Places
Rhode IslandElf
South CarolinaGremlins
South DakotaNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
TennesseeIt’s a Wonderful Life
TexasBatman Returns
UtahWhile You Were Sleeping
VermontThe Night Before
VirginiaScrooged
WashingtonScrooged
West VirginiaBetter Watch Out
WisconsinIt’s a Wonderful Life
WyomingThe Santa Clause

Methodology for Favorite Christmas Movies

First we used the list of the top 50 Christmas movies from Rotten Tomatoes to determine a set of candidate movies that each state might be most obsessed with. We then added top movies from other December holidays such as “Eight Crazy Nights” and “The Black Candle”.

The data used to determine which movie each state is most obsessed with came from Google Trends state-wise search frequencies. For example, if you look at the relative search frequency for “The Apartment” across states you see that people in New York have searched more for this movie than any other state.

This movie is therefore the movie that according to Google Trends data we deemed New York is most “obsessed” with — the state’s favorite movie in relation to other states. It is not necessarily the movie that they searched for more than all other movies, but the movie that residents searched for more than other states did. The same procedure and logic applies to all other movie-state matches in our results.

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Frank Moraes
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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com where I oversee the creation and maintenance of articles. My focus is on sports and the regional programming issues that flummox streamers. I have led the efforts to create pages that fully address problems fans have watching out-of-market NFL games. And I am responsible for the site's thorough coverage of the regional sports networks that are essential for fans of MLB, NBA, and NHL. I got my PhD in Atmospheric Physics from Oregon Institute of Technology back in 1995. After that, I spent much of that time developing remote sensing technology including streaming video back in the days when most people were using VHS tapes. Since that time, I have become a veteran tech writer who specializes in the nexus of entertainment and technology. It was natural that I gravitated toward the streaming industry. I started streaming early, back in 2007 when Netflix introduced "instant watch." Then Hulu started and I was hooked. Outside my work life, I am a longtime cord-cutter. I stream pretty much everything while my library of thousands of Blu-rays and DVDs collects dust. I currently subscribe to the following streaming services: * Amazon Prime Video * AMC+ * Curiosity Stream / Nebula * Hulu / Disney+ / ESPN+ * Max * Netflix * NFL+ Premium * Paramount+ / Showtime * Peacock I stream mostly on a Roku-powered TCL TV and a VIZIO with an Amazon 4K Fire TV stick. I also write about horror and other cult films at Psychotronic Review Contact me with thoughts, questions, and story ideas at [email protected]. My Work on HotDog.com:

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