Well guys, here we are. After knocking down 64 of our favorite holiday movies down to the final two we have landed on a Championship game that I think a lot of us could have seen coming. Our tournament this year, with the exception of a couple of massive underdogs pushing into the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, went pretty much as expected.

Just like every year, I like to make picks like I’m in an office pool before March Madness. For the most part the Final 4 was not that much of a surprise as two 1 seeds, a 2 seed, and a very strong 4 seed made it in. Y’all ended up with the same Elite 8 and Final 4 as I picked in my bracket before we started. After this great run, let’s see how the winners of each region fared in the Final Four and who will face off in the Championship!

The Championship Round voting begins now and will end Wednesday April 7 at 5pm Central. Championship winner will be announced on Thursday. I can’t believe we are already almost through this year!

But first — Let’s get on to the results! Remember all “scores” are percentages from voting.

Semi-Final #1

(1) Elf vs (4) Home Alone

The only non 1 or 2 seed to make the Final 4, our Classic Region 4 seed Home Alone, pretty much flew through the region seeing their closest match-ups in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 knocking out upstart 9 seed The Santa Clause and 3 seed National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation both by a final of 67-33. Our Modern Region was also easily walked through by our 1 seed Elf. Their closest match-ups also came in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 behind a pair of 77-23 victories over 5 seed The Holiday and 2 seed 2000’s The Grinch.

What would happen when these two behemoths finally got the chance to face off? A great game is the answer there. In the end, Modern was able to overcome Classic as 1 seed Elf moves on to the Championship after taking down 4 seed Home Alone by four votes and a final of 59-41.

Semi-Final #2

(1) Die Hard vs (2) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

Up until the Regional Final, which was decided by two votes, the higher seed in the Animated Region had won every single match-up. Our Animated Region winner 2 seed How The Grinch Stole Christmas really slinked and slunk past the competition, beating 3 seed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the Sweet 16 by 1 vote and taking down 1 seed Charlie Brown Christmas in the Elite 8 by two votes. Down in the Non-Typical Region, we saw the most non-typical Christmas movie of them all, 1 seed Die Hard, take it all. For the most part they did relatively easily with the competition, seeing their closest match-ups winning 63-37 against the 13 seed Cinderella Batman Returns in the Sweet 16 and a nail-biter 56-44 win over 2 seed Scrooged to take the region.

I wasn’t really positive what would happen in this Semi-Final but the Animated Region winner, 2 seed How The Grinch Stole Christmas, came out on top via a 5 vote victory over 1 seed Die Hard 60-40.

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After a really fun run up to the final game we end up with two of the strongest contenders going head to head. Two of most people’s favorites that get watched every year. I cannot wait to see how this one turns out because I have no idea how I am going to vote on this one.

After the Final Four, our bracket now looks like this:

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Championship

(1) Elf vs (2) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

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Polls are open. Let’s get to voting and see who wins our Championship! Voting will close Wednesday April 7 at 5pm. Our champion will be announced on Thursday. Thank you all for reading and voting on these again this year. It’s something that keeps me sane and happy every year.