Festive favourite It's A Wonderful Life

Dec 23, 2009, 13:04 GMT

'It's A Wonderful Life' has been voted the All-Time Favourite Christmas film.

The 1946 feel-good family movie - which stars James Stewart as a man who commits suicide on Christmas Eve and meets his guardian angel who shows him what life would have been like if he'd never existed - won 17 per cent of the vote in a poll of over 3,000 people.

Despite being nominated for five Oscars, 'It's A Wonderful Life' didn't win any, but the film has since been recognised by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made.

Coming a close second with 16 per cent of the vote was 'Home Alone', the movie which catapulted Macaulay Culkin to stardom when he played eight-year-old Kevin, who is accidentally left behind when his family headed to France for Christmas.

Kathryn Jacob, chief executive of Pearl and Dean, who commissioned the poll, said: "Christmas is renowned as a time when families come together and enjoy watching films- old and new.

"'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'Home Alone' ignite the feeling of nostalgia that we often enjoy around Christmas time."

The Richard Curtis romantic comedy 'Love Actually' - which follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives during a frantic month before Christmas - came third, followed by 'Miracle on 34th Street' and 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Pearl and Dean's All-Time Favourite Christmas Movies:

1. 'It's A Wonderful Life

2. 'Home Alone'

3. 'Love Actually'

4. 'Miracle on 34th Street'

5. 'The Muppet Christmas Carol'

6. 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'

7. 'Elf'

8. 'The Snowman'

9. 'Santa Claus: The Movie'

10. 'The Grinch'