Over the years many Christmas movies have come out and stayed as popular movies that people watch year after year. You may wonder how well these movies perform in the box office and how people received the movie at the time that it came out.
The best rated Christmas movie according to the audience of 1999 is The Ghosts of Christmas Eve with an 88%. This film is about a young girl that takes shelter in an abandoned film castle where she is found by the caretaker who uses ghosts of the past to inhabit the abandoned castle to turn the girl’s life around.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2000 is Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Rotten Tomatoes score was 49%. A grumpy, green, recluse living on Mount Crumpit despises the whos of Whoville and sets out to sabotage their holiday celebration.
The Sons of Mistletoe with a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes is the highest rated Christmas movie of 2001. The Sons of Mistletoe Orphanage is a happy place. It is run by charismatic Jimmy Adams, The home has become a happy family. When the large benefactor dies he leaves it to his daughter, Helen Radke, Jimmy worries that the funding will not be enough with the house showing its age.
With a 55% The Santa Claus 2 has the highest rating of 2002. Santa must find Mrs. Claus by Christmas or he will stop being Santa. At the same time his son Charlie is on the naughty list and there is a replacement Santa causing problems at the North Pole.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2003 is Elf with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Buddy was accidentally taken to the North Pole as a baby. He was raised to adulthood as an elf. When he starts to feel that he doesn’t fit in he travels to New York City to find his dad.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2004 is not the Polar Express but instead is In Search of Santa. It was rated 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. When a sleigh bell mysteriously falls from the sky, pure-hearted Princess Crystal is determined to prove that it came from one of Santa’s reindeer. Together with her sister, Princess Lucinda, set off on a journey to the North Pole to find Santa Claus.
2005’s highest rated Christmas film is Joyeux Noel with a 74% by Rotten Tomatoes. A war drama film based on the Christmas Truce of 1914. It is shown from the view of the French, British, and German soldiers.
Hogfather is the highest rated holiday film of 2006 with an 84% or Rotten Tomatoes. The Auditors of Reality, a group of celestial bureaucrats, attempt to eliminate the Hogfather, a jolly god-like creature that brings presents to children on December 32, similar to Santa Claus.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2007 is A Grandpa for Christmas with a 74%. Bert is a retired Hollywood actor who has been estranged from his daughter for many years, when she is suddenly in the hospital from a car accident, Social Services places her 10-year-old daughter, Becca, with her Grandfather that she never met.
2008’s A Christmas Tale with an 86% from Rotten Tomatoes being the highest rated of the year. A dysfunctional family gets together for the holidays, as their matriarch is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. As everyone’s story unfolds, we learn that no matter how bad your family is, being in one is inescapable.
2009’s highest rated Christmas film is The Perfect Gift with an 83% according to Rotten Tomatoes. A spoiled schoolgirl, her overworked executive mother, and a disillusioned young minister each receive an uplifting message about friendship, commitment, and the truest meaning of Christmas from a friendly but mysterious drifter.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2010 is A Heartland Christmas with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Christmas comes to Heartland with an anonymous call about some starving horses stranded by an avalanche in the Rocky Mountains, which send Amy and Ty to their rescue.
Arthur Christmas is the highest rated holiday film with 92%. Sant’s clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a misplaced present to a young girl in less than 2 hours on Christmas day.
2012’s highest rated Christmas movie according to Rotten Tomatoes with an 80% is Christmas With Holly. A coffee shop owner is determined to reconnect with his orphaned niece. In a quaint Washington Hamlet, but their lives are about to change with the arrival of a free-spirited woman who opens a toy store just before Christmas.
2013’s highest rated movie with an astounding 100% is Jingle Bell Rocks according to Rotten Tomatoes. A cinematic sleigh ride into the strange universe of alternative and underground Christmas music.
The highest rated film in 2014 is Christmas Again which again has a 100% according to Rotten Tomatoes. Noel is a heartbroken Christmas tree salesman who returns to New York City with hopes to put his past behind him. Living in a trailer and working the night shift, he begins to spiral downwards until the saving of a mysterious woman and some colorful customers save him from his own self-destruction.
2015’s Tree Man is the highest rated with an 82% by Rotten Tomatoes. Francios, a father of 3 from Quebec, returns to the same Manhattan street corner every year to deliver the magic of the season. In the film we see his relationship with his adopted neighbors and customers grow.
According to Rotten Tomatoes 2016’s highest rated Christmas film has an 89% and is Better Watch Out. On a quiet suburban street a babysitter must defend a 12-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover that it is a far from normal home invasion.
2017’s highest rated Christmas movie is The Man Who Invented Christmas with a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. This movie shows how Charles Dickens’ writing A Christmas Carol reshaped how people see the holidays as well as his life from birth to death.
2018’s Feast of Seven Fishes with an 88% is the highest rated of the year according to Rotten Tomatoes. The life story of a large Italian family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for a traditional feast of seven fish. The family members reminisce about the past and seek to love the future.
Rotten Tomatoes says that the highest rated Christmas movie of 2019 is Klaus with a 95%. A single act of kindness sparks another. When Smeerensburg’s new postman, Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleighful of holiday traditions.
The highest rated film of 2020 is Alien X-mas with a 100%. A young elf mistakes a tiny alien for a Christmas gift, not knowing her new plaything has plans to destroy earth’s gravity, and steal all presents.
Rotten Tomatoes says that the highest rated Christmas movie of 2021 is 8-Bit Christmas with 84%. Set in suburban Chicago in the late 1980s, the story centers on ten-year-old Jake Doyle’s herculean quest to get the latest and greatest video game system for Christmas.
2022’s highest rated Christmas movie is a Christmas Story Christmas with a 79%. Follows the now-adult Ralphie as he returns to the house on Cleveland Street to give his kids a magical Christmas like the one he had as a child, reconnecting with childhood friends, and reconciling the passing of his Old Man.
The highest rated Christmas movie of 2023 is The Holdovers with a 97%. follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go.
2024’s highest rated Christmas movie is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever according to Rotten Tomatoes with a 91%. The outrageous shenanigans of the Herdman siblings, or “the worst kids in the history of the world.” The siblings take over the annual Christmas pageant in a hilarious yet heartwarming tale involving the Three Wise Men, a ham, scared shepherds, and six rowdy kids.
