The cost of recreating famous Christmas holidays: revealed

What would the house swap in ‘The Holiday’ really cost? Over £30,000 if you’re Iris…

(Image credit: IMDB)

The festive season is no stranger to a hallmark Christmas film, and The Holiday (2006) is one of the most iconic. Following a rather swift house swap in which Iris and Amanda book some very last-minute flights to each other’s locations, the travel experts at My Budget Break wanted to figure out how much this would cost to do in real life.

Unsurprisingly, Amanda’s LA pad would have cost Iris considerably more than the beautiful Surrey cottage. In 2006, Iris would have looked at paying £17,092.08 for a two-week stay in the luxury Los Angeles mansion. In 2024? That jumps to £28,700.00. Coupled with the last-minute flights from London to LAX, this holiday would cost Iris £31,700.00 in 2024, compared to £18,878.71. That’s a huge 68% increase in price.

Amanda has a considerably lower cost to pay than Iris for her trip, although the increase between 2006 and 2024 has also jumped by a whopping 68%. Iris’s cosy cottage for a two-week stay would have cost £1208.97 back in 2006 for the two-week stay but jumps up to £2030 in 2024. With those last-minute flights costing around £3000 in 2024, Amanda has a total of £5040 to pay for her Christmas getaway in 2024.

Keep the change? Not with a £16,000 McCallister-style Christmas in Paris!

(Image credit: Disney Plus)

No list of Christmas films would be complete without the classic Home Alone. The film has cemented itself as a true timeless classic that represents the essence of Christmas for many and, Google searches already increased for the film by 8% by the end of October. A little early, no?

There is a notorious question about what job Kevin’s parents did to afford their ginormous home. Whilst we can’t say for certain, My Budget Break can reveal that to complete the same trip that the McAllisters took in the film by flying from the USA to Paris (in economy) and staying in accommodation near the Eiffel Tower, it would cost £2535.89 per person. That’s a huge 140% increase from 1990 when it would have cost £1055.47 per person.

We know that 15 people took the flight to Paris, and back in 1990, the return flight would have cost £454.48 per person. In total for 15 people (with no adults in first class), that’s a grand total of £6817.20. In 2024? The flights for 15 people would cost £16,379.35.

However, if we take into account the fact that four parents travelled first class, in 1990 their flights would have cost around £3849.80. In 2024, this would have been £9250.69, taking the total of all flights including first class to £49,014.76.

Dreaming of a pricey Christmas? The Vermont trip in White Christmas costs 2208% more in 2024

(Image credit: LA Phil)

The 1954 festive joy of White Christmas is the true description of a timeless classic. After Bob and Phil are convinced to take a trip and spend Christmas outside of New York and head to Vermont by Betty and Judy, the group find themselves in the ‘Colombia Inn’. As this is a fictional place, My Budget Break based the calculations on similar lodges in the Vermont area.

If you wanted to recreate this trip in person, it would cost 2208% more in 2024 than in 1954. The trip would cost £1037.58 per person in the present day, and just £44.95 back in the 50’s. This is made up of the cost of an average 3-night stay over Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, where accommodation would cost £722.58 nowadays, and £31.31 back in 1954.

Travel costs aren’t the only prices to have risen since 1954, but dining too. A Christmas meal is at the heart of a cosy, traditional Christmas, and in the 1950s a Christmas dinner at a Vermont inn would have cost around £1 per person. By today’s standards in line with inflation, this same festive meal could easily reach £100 per person at a cosy Vermont lodge.