Streaming All Of America’s Favorite Holiday Movies Will Cost $71.93 This Year

Kevin McCallister defended his house with a blowtorch and a paint can. You, meanwhile, are about to defend your wallet against six different streaming apps. We surveyed more than 4,300 U.S. residents about their favorite Christmas and holiday movies, then priced out what it would actually cost to stream the top 25 this season using the lowest-cost bundles available now. We found that a full holiday-movie marathon will cost at least $71.93, and that’s with some serious bundling math.

How much does it cost to stream all of America’s favorite holiday movies?

According to our calculations, streaming the top holiday movies will run you a minimum of $71.93: Using the optimal combination of streaming platforms (Disney+/Hulu/HBO Max and Apple TV/Peacock bundles, a Paramount Plus subscription, and free access to Fandango at Home), watching all 25 favorites would cost $48.97 for one month of access, plus $22.96 in additional movie rental or purchase fees. Twenty-one of the top 25 favorite titles are included in the cost of the platforms above, but the remaining four require a rental or purchase, ranging from $3.99 to $9.99.

Streaming prices have climbed steadily over the years, a trend some analysts call “streamflation.” Disney+, Hulu, Peacock and several others have each raised their individual subscription prices, and the cost of watching a favorite holiday movie keeps creeping up even as the movie itself stays the same. Bundles are one of the few ways to push back. Pairing services can cost less than buying each on its own, but even so, bundling doesn’t cover every title: the rental and purchase fees on top of it are what push the total to $71.93. In fact, nearly a third of the cost to view America’s holiday movie favorites came from rental fees.

Bundling is how most Americans keep their streaming costs in check: 2026 Deloitte data shows that about 50% of U.S. streaming subscribers say at least one of their streaming services is part of a bundle, up from 44% in 2025. Our optimized plan leans on the same idea, with just two bundles covering most of the top 25 movies. The basic ad-supported Disney Plus/Hulu/HBO Max bundle is a great value at $21.99 per month, and the Apple TV/Peacock bundle also offers several holiday favorites at $17.99 per month.

The appetite for holiday movies is real, too. 84% of Americans in our survey say they plan to watch holiday movies this season, and 31% say they’ll watch a lot.

The top 25 holiday movies, ranked

Below are the top 25 holiday movies, according to our survey of over 4,300 Americans. The table includes the platform and additional rental fee needed to stream each one at the cheapest available bundle price. An “Included” badge means the film is covered in that platform’s subscription cost with $0 in extra fees.

What the rankings reveal

Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and our survey has proved it. It’s the great seasonal feud: Bruce Willis reportedly declared at his 2018 Comedy Central roast that Die Hard is a Bruce Willis movie, not a Christmas one, while screenwriter Steven E. de Souza has long argued the opposite, even drawing up a chart comparing it to White Christmas to make his case. Americans have now voted with their remotes: Die Hard ranks #6, ahead of White Christmas at #15. De Souza’s argument, in other words, held up. (John McClane, we hope, is pleased. He may be too busy hanging off a skyscraper to comment.)

Dickens is basically a franchise. Four of the top 25 holiday movies are retellings of A Christmas Carol, and our survey counted each as its own film: the 1984 George C. Scott version (#14), The Muppet Christmas Carol (#23), the 1970 musical Scrooge (#24), and Bill Murray’s modern remix Scrooged (#25). Mickey’s Christmas Carol was just outside of the top 25 rankings. That’s nearly one in six favorites centered on a man who gets scared straight by ghosts. Budget bonus: the Muppets are included with a subscription to Disney Plus, and Scrooged is included with Paramount Plus subscriptions.

Two Grinches ranked in the top 25. The 2000 live-action film The Grinch, starring Jim Carrey, ranked as the 5th favorite holiday movie. The 1966 cartoon version, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, ranked #11. As of November 2026, both are currently available on Peacock and can be viewed there without any additional rental fees.

The 1960s TV specials refuse to retire. Four classic animated TV specials made the list: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966, #11), Rudolph (1964, #12), A Charlie Brown Christmas (#13), and Frosty the Snowman (#18). Rudolph in particular has stood the test of time: it’s widely cited as the longest-running Christmas TV special in history, airing every year since 1964. Rudolph is also the priciest to stream: it costs $9.99 to purchase on Fandango At Home. There’s an irony here: it’s a TV special that has been a fixture of broadcast television for decades, so the cheapest way to see Rudolph’s nose glow may well be a good old-fashioned TV airing. (Only 8% of our respondents plan to use antennas or broadcast TV to watch holiday movies, but hey, it’s free.)

Charlie Brown has had a rough streaming life. When Apple TV+ locked up the Peanuts specials in 2020, the backlash was fast enough that Apple cut a deal with PBS to air them. Since then, free-viewing windows on Apple’s platform have varied by year, so check Apple’s announcements before you pay for anything. In our optimized plan, it’s included with Apple TV subscriptions for no additional fee.

What are the favorite holiday movies in every state?

Elf or Home Alone tops the list in every state in our results (among states with sufficient sample sizes). Home Alone was the runaway favorite in a majority of states (34) but Elf was the winner in 7 (Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin). Movie-lovers in Delaware and Maine were tied between the two. Illinois fittingly sits in the Home Alone column: the film was shot largely in the Chicago area, and Illinois has been reported as its most-Googled Christmas movie.

Home Alone’s nationwide dominance has deep roots. It opened in November 1990 and held the #1 spot at the box office for 12 straight weeks, turning an $18 million budget into a worldwide gross of about $476 million. Elf took the slower route: it was a solid hit in 2003, but it grew into a perennial favorite over the following two decades, with Will Ferrell himself saying he feared it might be his last movie. Its streak of upper-Midwest and Mountain West wins looks like the work of Buddy-the-Elf-style earnestness, which Ferrell has described as “beautifully uncynical.”

Top holiday movies by generation

Our survey revealed a few notable differences between the generations when it came to the top holiday movies. Starting with the youngest adults, we found that Gen Z is basically a two-movie generation. Home Alone (37%) and Elf (35%) are separated by only two percentage points, and Elf’s popularity here is no surprise: writers have argued it’s become a Gen Z Christmas classic. The oldest members of this group were in elementary school when it came out, and the youngest weren’t born yet. The Grinch rounds out their podium at 16%.

Millennials are the Home Alone generation. At 39%, they give Home Alone its highest share of any age group, which fits: they’re the kids who watched Kevin on VHS and the same parents now putting it on for their own kids. Christmas Vacation and The Grinch tie at 13% for third. As for Gen X, Home Alone edges Elf by a single vote, and Christmas Vacation is just 20 votes behind at 25%. It’s a genuine three-way tie, and the only generation where an 80s-era comedy is a legitimate contender for #1. Griswold nostalgia is strong.

Boomers are the outlier, and they have a copyright clerk to thank. It’s a Wonderful Life is the only #1 on the board that isn’t a family comedy from the 1990s or later, and it’s the favorite of 29% of boomers. The movie flopped when it came out in 1946, but when its copyright went unrenewed in 1974, it entered the public domain and TV stations began airing it constantly, turning a box-office disappointment into a holiday ritual. (A later legal fight let the rights owners reclaim control of the film, which is why it’s no longer on every channel.) Today, this classic is included with Amazon Prime or Paramount Plus, and it’s available for $3.99 to rent on Apple TV or Fandango at Home.

How people plan to watch holiday movies in 2026

Most Americans plan to stream their holiday favorites with paid streaming subscriptions (69%), and 42% will lean on free streamers such as Tubi or Pluto TV. A surprisingly loyal 19% will pop in a DVD or Blu-ray, and 2% are still going full Kevin McCallister-era to watch VHS tapes of their Christmastime favorites. The big gap: only 11% plan to rent digitally, yet renting is exactly what a marathon of the full top 25 requires.

The pull toward cheaper viewing options matches the broader mood. Deloitte’s 2026 survey found that 40% of Americans cut or reduced streaming subscriptions in the previous three months, and 68% of streaming subscribers have at least one ad-supported plan.

How to bundle and save on your holiday movie favorites

Not ready to spend $71.93 to watch your favorite Christmastime movies? Here are the easiest ways to trim the streaming bill this holiday season:

1. 1
   Subscribe for a month, then cancel. Holiday movies are seasonal. Sign up for the platforms you need in December, binge, and cancel before the new year. This approach works best when you plan your watch list ahead of time.
2. 2
   Consider ad-supported tiers. Ad-supported streaming plans are generally cheaper than ad-free ones, and most subscribers already have at least one. Use the ad breaks to grab a snack or take a bathroom break.
3. 3
   Hunt for free viewing opportunities. Check out the TV guide to see if your favorite movie is playing on good old-fashioned local broadcast TV channels or free streaming apps.
4. 4
   See if you can bundle internet and TV. Your internet service provider may offer internet and TV bundles. You may be able to pay less for streamers and the internet together than separately. ISPs like Cox and Spectrum offer great bundled internet and streaming packages.