Though it’s a great movie, I don’t think that it will become a classic for one main reason: it’s unconventional in comparison to most classic Christmas movies. Take A Christmas Story; almost anyone can relate to one part or another of A Christmas Story- the dad who’s in love with the ugliest furniture, the Christmas dinner disaster, the worst present you could possibly recieve, etc. It’s practically impossible to relate to anything at all in Elf. Then consider How the Grinch Stole Christmas- a classic, beloved story written by a world-famous author. Elf obviously doesn’t fall under that category. Then take the classic claymation movies- almost all of them tell a classic Christmas story, such as The Little Drummer Boy, or answer a child’s question about Christmas, such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Elf doesn’t fall under any of this, and though I, too think that Elf is a fantastic movie, I don’t believe that it will ever achieve that classic status.