‘It still makes me laugh’: Prince William names his favorite Christmas film that he watches every year, and it’s not what you’d guess

The festive season is well and truly here, and members of the British Royal Family have been letting slip their Christmas favorites. It turns out that Prince William has a film that he adores above all others at this time of year, and it’s a modern classic.

While being interviewed for the Royal Marsden Hospital radio station, Prince William let slip that his favorite festive flick is none other than Elf, starring Will Farrell. The Prince certainly seems to be a huge fan, revisiting the movie every year. ” It’s very funny, and I keep watching it every Christmas, and it still makes me laugh,” he said.

Prince William has been President of the Royal Marsden Hospital since 2007, a role which was previously filled by his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. The hospital is a center for cancer research and treatment that has helped hundreds of thousands of people.

When it comes to his choice of Christmas movie, I have to say the Prince has picked a good one. It’s hard to pick holes in his choice. Legitimately good Christmas movies tend to be rare, with only the strongest contenders managing to break into a body of work that contains classics like Meet Me St. Louis, The Muppet Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooged, and Home Alone.

The 2003 movie stars Ferrell as Elf-out-of-water Buddy. Basically a normal-sized person, he was raised by Elves who work for Santa before traveling all the way from the North Pole to New York to meet his biological dad. His complete removal from modern society, how people work, and popular culture that doesn’t entirely hinge on Christmas leads to all manner of hi-jinks.

Directed by Jon Favreau, this was his first real crack at directing a big-screen feature some five years before he would go on to reinvent superhero cinema when he teamed up with Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man.

Farrell was joined by James Caan, Bob Newhart, and Zooey Deschanel in the comedy that would become for many, including the future King of England, a Christmas classic. The movie would become a huge critical and commercial success, bringing in over $220 million on a $33 million budget, establishing Ferrell as someone who could win big at the box office.

Elf positioned itself as a good-natured family film that is elevated by Ferrell’s incredibly genuine performance. While it’s easy to consider the character of Buddy as overly saccharine, Ferrell plays him with a degree of heartfelt honesty and charm that makes the whole movie work incredibly well.

And that’s the root of the reason why it would appeal to everyone, from a guy in his early twenties when it came out to that same guy and his wife and kids twenty years later.