Here’s which iconic Christmas film each of the Russell Group universities would be

Everyone has their favourite Christmas film and whatever it is says a LOT about who you are as a person and, specifically, as a student. This means we can work out all the Russell Group unis as Christmas films. If your fave is The Polar Express you need to grow up, if it’s Die Hard you think you’re edgy and different when in reality you’re just boring, if it’s Elf you have the sense of humour of a 12-year-old who finds fart jokes hilarious and if it’s Love Actually or The Holiday then you’re just elite (or obsessed with Jude Law).

But does your favourite Christmas film have anything to do with the uni you go to? Because each uni gives off a very specific vibe that can be matched up with your favourite Christmas film. So as everyone sits hungover with your flatmates binge-watching all the classic Christmas films, here are the Russell Group unis as Christmas films:

The Holiday – Exeter

I have never seen a more Exeter girly than Iris from The Holiday. Her cottage in Surrey? Sounds like literally every person from Exeter I’ve ever met. Plus, Amanda’s coat collection? Very Exeter (although maybe would need a few more North Face puffers in there). The Holiday just gives the same vibes as the Exeter students who, dressed of course in Tom’s Trunks and with a Longchamp bag, tap tap tap away at their MacBooks in lectures before rushing off for TP dressed in an Urban Outfitters Josie top at literally 9pm.

Elf – York

If Elf is your go-to Christmas film then you just never really grew up, which is the same for all York students. You weren’t cool enough to go to a vibey northern uni like Leeds and Manchester and too scared to go for any other city uni so stumbled on the boring 1960s landscape of York where the only thing anyone knows your uni for is a dead duck.

York students are the kind of students to laugh at YouTube shorts instead of TikTok, be weirdly obsessed with Minecraft, and truly never let the death of Vine go. This is why York students find the awful humour of Elf funny.

Love Actually – Oxford

For starters, Love Actually has to be Oxford purely for the fact that it features a British Prime Minister and therefore it’s a rite of passage for him to have gone to Oxford. But, just like in Love Actually, Oxford is small and the way it’s spread out into colleges means everyone knows each other and everyone’s storylines are connected.

One trip into The Rad Cam and you bump into at least one ex, someone from your tutorial group and a rando you added on Insta after meeting in the Bridge toilets. The slightly weird tradition of having college wives and husbands also means that love actually, is, all around at Oxford.

Home Alone – Newcastle

This film is pure chaos and naturally, so are Newcastle students. When Newcastle students finally get away from their parents and spend literally a week in Jesmond they’re causing chaos in the only way they know how: spending far too much money on trebs, shagging all their flatmates and setting elaborate booby traps all over their crappy student house. This is naturally what you’d imagine Kevin from Home Alone to get up to as soon as he got to uni.

Nativity! – Manchester

Arguably one of the best Christmas films, Nativity! is good vibes yet just pure chaos. You can just picture Mr Poppy enjoying his sausage sizzlers in Fallowfield and honestly, if you’ve ever stepped foot in Courtyard, you would think you opened the door to the classroom at St Bernadette’s because that place is pure mayhem. You could also just imagine a flat of Manchester freshers going on a trip to see a baby be born or randomly flying to LA to see a baby be born. Just like Nativity!, Manchester doesn’t take itself too seriously and just has an all-around nice time because of it.

Nativity three and four – Durham

We might have just sung the praises of the first Nativity film, but as soon as Martin Freeman leaves that franchise, the whole thing falls to pieces. Okay, the second film with David Tennant is an okay watch but the third and fourth films? Literally unbearable. So Durham would be the Nativity! sequels because just like those films, it’s always trying to live up to the OG unis – Oxford and Cambridge, but never quite makes the mark and is just lame because of it.

Polar Express – Warwick

Okay, yeah Polar Express was fun and the CGI was cool when you watched it with your mum in 2004, but watching it now, it is one of the most snooze-worthy Christmas films to exist. This is kind of like when you look Warwick up in the prospectus and it looks amazing compared to when you actually get to Leamington Spa. The whole film is just a long journey to the middle of nowhere or, for Warwick students, Coventry.

Mostly I just imagine all Warwick students to be exactly like that annoying kid in yellow with the glasses in this film.

The Grinch – LSE

LSE students are some of the most intense students you will ever meet and that’s why London School of Economics HAS to be The Grinch. Devoid of any actual life or Christmas spirit, just like the Grinch, LSE students are wannabe corporate minions whose only ambition is to destroy the Christmas spirit of any flatmates trying to have a festive house party or even just watching a Christmas film in the living room for fear of it jeopardising your chances of getting into the Magic Circle when you graduate. Just lighten up and have a mince pie, I BEG.

Die Hard – Leeds

Just because it’s set during Christmas doesn’t make it a Christmas film just like going to Leeds, getting a vape addiction and adding a drug dealer on Snapchat doesn’t make you edgy. You can also just see the massive parallels between Hyde Park and Nakatomi Plaza can’t you really – just insufferable rugby boys left right and centre.

It’s a Wonderful Life – Cambridge

It’s a Wonderful Life really is the OG Christmas film just like Cambridge is the OG uni. It’s a classic, but mostly it’s just long, boring and a bit of a slog to get through, just like any conversation with a Cambridge student. Truly, only Cambridge students have the brain capacity to get through It’s a Wonderful Life every single Christmas, though. You can just see all the Camb students calling it their favourite Christmas film though to appear all intellectual and superior because they wouldn’t be caught dead watching Home Alone or Nativity!

The Nightmare Before Christmas – Bristol

Bristol, kind of like Leeds, likes to think of itself as edgy and not like other girls and that’s why it would be The Nightmare Before Christmas. You can’t tell me that the way that some of these characters dress isn’t something that the Depop girlies would wear to a study sesh in the Wills Memorial lib.

Plus, the trippy and low-key kinda janky stop-motion vibe of the film is just how your average Bris student kicks about after a heavy night at Grav.

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Related stories recommended by this writer:

• It’s Christmas! These are officially the most festive uni cities, in 2023

• Elf is officially 20 years old so here are the wild cast transformations, two decades on

• If the Gilmore Girls characters went to Russell Group unis this is where they’d go