If one study is to be believed, New Jersey has a new favorite Christmas movie: “Carol”, a 2015 Cate Blanchett film. I have no opinion of that film as I’ve never seen it, but I find it hard to believer it surpasses “A Christmas Story”, which was New Jersey’s most popular holiday movie a year ago. It’s a different website doing the ranking this year, a dating site called Click Cupid; using Google Trends and Google AdWords, they compared the total search volume of terms like “where to watch Carol”, “Carol Netflix” and other similar terms during the Christmas holiday period in each state.

They also listed the favorite Christmas movies for the two prior years, and in New Jersey, last year they claim it was “Carol” (which shows that it depends on which study you use), and the year before, “A Christmas Story.” They also considered the suggestions by Rotten Tomatoes of what makes the best Christmas movies of all time. Last year the survey I used was from House Method, which took a poll of Americans’ tastes and found that “A Christmas Story” was the Garden State’s favorite.

For 2019 (the most recent year available), Click Cupid says that “Carol” was the most popular Christmas movie in 15 states, with “Die Hard” number one in 12 states, and “A Christmas Story” was tops in 11 states. Other films that show up are “White Christmas”, “Little Women”, and “Elf.” They also found that 56% of Americans don’t believe that “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. Strangely missing from the list is the Christmas movie which I believe to be hands down the best of all time: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” Maybe next year.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.

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