Think ‘It’s A Wonderful Life Is’ Utah’s Favorite Christmas Movie? Think Again!

My co-workers put up with a lot. I've made it no secret that I tend to go a little overboard on the whole Christmas thing. No, not so much the gifts and presents, although that certainly figures in. No, I tend to go off the deep end with holiday lights, Christmas music and Christmas movies.

It's the music that my co-workers have to endure the most. Many times they will come in to my work area only to hear holiday tunes playing...sometimes in June. Chris, who is with me on the morning show, has to pull the reins in on my use of Christmas music as “bumper” music going back in to our show segments until December. It takes all the restraint I can muster.

But the other things, the lights and the movies, aren't endured by my co-workers. No, the person who has to endure that part of my obsession is my wife. Thankfully, in some respects she's a willing accomplice. We will start driving around looking for Christmas lights usually in mid November. Visit Cedar City puts out a list of holiday light displays and we usually end up driving that once....or twice.

And then there are the movies. We have a box full of holiday movies that we start dragging out usually the day after Halloween.

I think watching Christmas movies is just a part of the magic of the season. And I think I'm not alone on that thinking. And you have a wide variety of the kinds of movies you can watch.

For those who prefer a more traditional holiday tale you can't go wrong with the classics such as It's A Wonderful Life, White Christmas, or a plethora of movies that will be offered up by Turner Classic Movies.

There's animated classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, or the more recent Polar Express.

We also enjoy some of the more off beat movies. Did you know Humphrey Bogart was in a comedy(ish) movie set around the holiday? If not, you need to check out We're No Angels. There's also Dick Van Dyke as a kleptomaniac butler in the movie Fitzwilly that is set around the holiday season.

For movies full of fun and hi-jinks you have the Home Alone series, and the hilarious Jim Carey leading the way in the live action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Some like the more action filled movies like Die Hard (and I know that there is a huge debate on if that is a real Christmas movie). Well, we watch them all.

We've even seen, multiple times, two movies that came out this year that will, hopefully, be in our holiday viewing for years to come. First was Dallas Jenkins' wonderful adaptation of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, followed by the Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans adventure-comedy Red One. We'll snatch those up once they release to home video.

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We all have our favorite movies that we like to watch during the holidays, but have you ever wondered which movie is the one that is the most liked in Utah? Well, we have an answer to that. It seems the folks at Newsweek were curious about that and gathered data collected by Today's Homeowner and came up with an interactive map showing the most popular Christmas movie in each state. Click on Utah, and it will tell you that the most popular holiday film on our state is....A Christmas Story. The 1983 release was the most popular in 23 of the states, so we're not alone.

What's your must watch Christmas movie? Let us know in the app, or leave a comment!