The holiday season is upon us and that means a whole bunch of movies, old and new, dedicated to the festive season.
OntarioBets, the home of Ontario sports betting coverage, turned to Google Trends for analysis of the most popular Christmas movies for Ontario residents. We looked at search results of each movie over the past three Christmases. The contenders included the 40 most popular Christmas movies over the past year based on global traffic from AhRefs.
Rank | Christmas Movies | Interest Over Time |
1 | Home Alone | 9 |
2 | National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation | 7 |
3 | Elf | 6 |
T4 | How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) | 5 |
T4 | A Christmas Story | 5 |
T4 | Love Actually | 5 |
T4 | The Christmas Chronicles | 5 |
The No. 1 spot still belongs to the 1990 comedy “Home Alone” with a search interest score of nine in the time that we took our research as it related to the home of Ontario sportsbook apps.
The success of “Home Alone” upon its initial release spawned a few sequels (of course) and made a star out of Macaulay Culkin, who was 10 when the movie was released on Nov. 16, 1990. The movie had an $18 million budget, according to the Internet Movie Database, and made that back just on its opening weekend in North America alone. The film went on to gross more than $285 million in the United States and Canada combined and more than $476 million USD worldwide.
Culkin has been the rare child star to retain a viable acting career well into adulthood. “Home Alone” co-stars Canada’s own Catherine O’Hara, a Toronto native who plays the mother of Culkin’s character, Kevin. For a truly Canadian take on the holidays, check out our story about Christmas trees in Canada to find out whether folks nationwide prefer real or artificial trees for the holiday season.
In second place on our list is “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with a search interest score of seven. The 1989 film stars Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in the third vacation-themed movie in a series, following “Vacation” and “European Vacation” earlier in the 1980s. This time, it’s more of a staycation because some wacky relatives descend on the Griswold home for Christmas.
Third spot in the land of Ontario casino apps belongs to “Elf” (search interest score of six), the 2003 comedy starring Will Ferrell. He plays a human raised among elves at the North Pole and begins searching for his true identity. James Caan co-stars as his father.
Yes, there are plenty of viewing options for Christmas movies, whether it’s a new release or one you’ve seen 40 times as part of a holiday tradition. If you lean toward something new for your entertainment – available all year round – try our reviews of the newest Ontario sportsbooks right here at OntarioBets.com.
Author
Jim Tomlin is an editor and writer specializing in sports, gambling and the intersection of those industries. He has 30+ years of journalism experience and his work has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition.
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