Ranking Harry Potter's Seven Christmases

Harry Potter is not exactly a series of Christmas stories but there are a few factors that make it feel right at home around the holidays. For one, there’s the fact that every book features at least one chapter set on and around December 25th. Now, since the books span a whole school year, from September to June, that’s to be expected; that alone hardly qualifies it as worthy of Christmas reading/watching. That being said, those particular Christmas chapters are pretty memorable, almost to a book. There’s usually some big event, important clue, or funny moment that happens to Harry and the gang around Christmastime.

And then there’s the fact that, for years, ABC Family would play a marathon of the Harry Potter movies around the holidays, always showing those fleeting moments in the movies where snow and Christmas trees were on screen…

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

So, despite the fact that Halloween seems considerably more appropriate (October 31st was the day Voldemort was defeated by Lilly’s Love), Harry Potter has sort of fallen into being a Christmas event.

No complaints from me.

With that said, here is our ranking of each of the seven Christmases that Harry enjoyed during the series, from least to most memorable and entertaining.

#7 THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

“The Firebolt” is pretty subdued in terms of Christmas happenings and trappings. Nevertheless, presents are handed out, including a new broomstick that’s given to Harry from an anonymous donor. Hermione of course assumes something sinister and declares the broom too dangerous to use. She even says she believes Sirius Black gave the gift to Harry, in the kind of hilarious foreshadowing that readers know to love about JK Rowling.

After the enchantment of the first book’s Christmas and the whimsical fun of the second, book three spent most of its time laying more of the pieces in place for the second half of the book to tie up. A lot of time is devoted to Hagrid and Buckbeak which was certainly important to the plot, but unrelated to the holiday setting.

#6 THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

“A Very Frosty Christmas” tells of Harry spending his holiday at the Burrow with the Weasley’s and more than a few members of the Order of the Phoenix. In terms of laughs, there are a few, particularly Molly Weasley’s feuding with Fleur Delacour over the former’s love of magical Christmas music (“A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love” being the main sticking point).

There’s some disagreement between the Order and Harry as to whether or not Snape can be trusted (the same argument that we’ve been having since book one, and it comes to a head in the climax of this book), but nothing new is established other than Lupin’s insistence that Dumbledore trusts Snape and therefore everyone else should too. Other than that, the big event is the return of Percy to the Family Christmas, only for him to be there as an excuse for Rufus Scrimgeour to get a read on Harry. Ron got a necklace from Lavender Brown for Christmas; poor guy always gets bad garments and accessories for the holidays. It’s a fine chapter with some fun moments, but ultimately not very memorable.

#5 THE GOBLET OF FIRE

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

“The Yule Ball,” on the other hand, is easily one of Goblet of Fire’s most memorable chapters (and movie scenes). The holiday begins with Dobby delivering his present to the boy who freed him. He gave socks as a gift, which, to a house elf, is probably the greatest gift he could think of. The rest of their Christmas day is filled with happiness and levity…but then night falls and the Yule Ball begins.

Ron’s dress robes date to the 70’s from the look of them. Harry and Ron take the Patil twins, though Harry would rather be with Cho and Ron would rather be with Hermione; the Patil’s would have settled for anyone willing to care that they were there, poor girls. What follows is an expertly-written back-and-forth by Rowling, as she moves from the humor of the awkward teenage dance to the intrigue of Karkaroff and Snape and the book’s Big Mystery. The chapter ends with Harry learning way too much about Hagrid and Madame Maxime and being told by Cedric Diggory to use the Prefect’s Swanky bathroom. As fun and mysterious as the chapter is in the book, this is one of the few times where the movie’s interpretation measures up to the printed page. Ron’s dress robes and the cringy awkwardness of everyone at the dance (minus Hermione) really lands in the movie.

#4 THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“The Polyjuice Potion” brings us Harry’s second Christmas at Hogwarts. He gets a toothpick as a gift from his aunt and uncle. That has to be my favorite gift anyone gives anyone in the whole series. The chapter focuses on the trio’s attempts to infiltrate Slytherin’s common room. There are some great comedic moments as Hermione plays the superstar here (Seriously, Hermione’s skills are already at NEWT Level and she’s only twelve years old!), whipping up a couple chocolate cakes spiked with magical roofies meant to knock out Crabbe and Goyle. The duo’s hair is then added to the Polyjuice Potion she’d been brewing in Moaning Mertyl’s bathroom (the same bathroom that contained the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets right under their noses, which is what they were trying to sneak down to the Slytherin room to find out how to open…gosh I love these books).

Harry and Ron head down to get some answers (Hermione refuses to leave her stall) from Draco but only discover that the little white-haired twerp has no idea who’s been opening the Chamber. The fun ends as Ron starts to change back into himself and they manage to make it back to Hermione just in time to discover she turned into a literal Thundercat.

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

4 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Bigfoot

1 year ago

I would say that the first 2 movies of the series were the best for me because Harry’s gang were still very cute. I guess this movie enterprise can continue on with Harry becoming the Hogwart’s headmaster.

MidNight

I would have never thought of Harry Potter as a part of Halloween before reading your article! I simply overlooked the October 31st part. For Christmas, I find the first few movies being the most cheerful of all because the scope of the mystery is still relatively small. I remember The Goblet of Fire the most at this point with its festive atmosphere.

Stargazer

I have to watch these movies again for me to agree or to disagree with the ranking. I already forgot some of the stories so it would be good to refresh my memory about the life of Harry. The kids would surely love me for them to watch the whole Harry Potter series in one sitting.

Snarky-Guru

I’d rank Harry’s holiday in The Goblet of Fire in the top spot. I loved reading your creative article. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to consider Harry’s Christmases since he has no immediate family and none were truly joyous occasions.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

Ranking Harry Potter’s Seven Christmases

#7 THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

#6 THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

#5 THE GOBLET OF FIRE

#4 THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you