As I watched the Oscar-winning notifications pop up on my phone throughout the most recent Academy Awards show, I couldn’t help but wonder how many Christmas-themed movies have been nominated, or won, the prestigious Oscar in any category. As it turns out, there have been quite a few!
Holiday Land secures first Christmas movie Oscar nomination
The first Christmas-themed film to ever receive an Oscar nomination was a 1934 Disney-esque short animated feature from Screen Gems production company called Holiday Land (view the entire film via youtube above), which was produced for Columbia Pictures and is sometimes referred to as “Festival of Fun Days.” The film was the first in a series of animated shorts that the company referred to as its “Color Rhapsody” films. These animated shorts were launched in response to successful shorts created by Walt Disney (Silly Symphonies) and Warner Brothers (Merrie Melodies). In total, Screen Gems created 119 short animated films for Columbia’s Color Rhapsody series.
Holiday Land featured Scrappy, an animated star who’d previously appeared in a series of black and white cartoons and who was making his first color appearance here. The film was nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category but ultimately lost to another film, The Tortoise and the Hare, which has achieved its own iconic status in the animated film genre.
The basic premise behind Holiday Land revolves around Scrappy, who’s been awakened by his alarm clock to get him up for another school day. But Scrappy wants to stay in bed (what kid doesn’t) and wishes it were a holiday so he could do so. And lo and behold, the wind blows in through his bedroom window knocking pages off a wall calendar. As they land on the floor, all sorts of iconic holiday figures emerge from the pages, in miniature, in his room, including Santa Claus, Father Time, and the Easter Bunny. It’s a fun rollicking 8-minute film that features an animation style similar to the early Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoons from the same era. I found the opening particularly well done, with birds flittering to and fro amidst a dense forest outside Scrappy’s house. While Holiday Land was the first Christmas-themed movie to be nominated, or win, an Oscar, it wouldn’t be the last.
Has a Christmas movie ever won a best picture Oscar?
Let’s answer the big question first before we jump into this Oscar well. Has a Christmas-themed movie ever won a best picture Oscar? The answer is no but four have been nominated and one, The Holdovers, may have come the closest to winning in 2023. The four movies that have been nominated for a best picture Oscar include It’s a Wonderful Life, in 1946, Miracle on 34th Street, in 1947, The Bishop’s Wife, in 1947, and the Holdovers.
It’s a Wonderful Life is the first non-animated Christmas-themed film to be nominated for an Oscar, which garnered five nominations in all (the most of any Christmas-themed movie until The Holdovers garnered five as well). It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for best picture, best actor (Jimmy Stewart), best director (Frank Capra), best film editing (William Hornbeck), and best sound recording (John O. Aalberg). Although today the beloved film is viewed as perhaps the most iconic Christmas-themed movie ever made, it didn’t win a single Oscar when it came out.
Other movies that you might have thought would have come home with Oscar gold returned empty handed. Movies like 1954’s White Christmas, which garnered only one nomination in 1954 for Best Song, which it did not win. Many others have also been nominated (e.g., Home Alone for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, The Nightmare Before Christmas for Best Visual Effects, and 1970’s Scrooge with Albert Finney), but all have come home disappointed.
And the winner is …
But there have also been winners! The Bells of St. Mary’s won for sound, Miracle on 34th Street won best supporting actor for Edmund Gwenn (Santa), The Bishop’s Wife won for sound, How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey won for makeup, and the Holdovers came home with an Oscar win for best supporting actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). I personally thought the Holdover’s Paul Giamatti should have come home with Oscar gold that year for his wonderful performance as a teacher at an all-boy’s New England boarding school at Christmas time, but sadly I do not get a vote.
While Christmas movies have won Oscars, the big prize, best picture, continues to elude the genre. But hope springs eternal with more films like the Holdovers certainly on the horizon in the ongoing Christmas quest for the biggest movie prize of them all.
Check out our growing list of mini Christmas movie reviews, which includes a separate review of each movie soundtrack, by clicking here.
