Miracle on 34th Street - yay or nay?

Yay

I think it's very good.

Yay. Not a holiday favorite but its good.

Big Yay.

I’ve always enjoyed it, typically watch it at Thanksgiving due to the parade.

It’s not one of my favourite Christmas films, too sentimental for my taste.

Enormous yay. It's a great movie because it's not only sentimental and sweet, but also deeply cynical at the same time. Nearly every major character, except for Kris Kringle and the kids, is out to use each other. Some in a benign way, such as Fred, who admits from the very beginning that he's befriended Susan to get to know her mother better, and a lot of the adults who are just desperate to keep their jobs. The only really creepy character is the store psychologist who tries to peg the impressionable teenager Alfred as some kind of budding molester/psycho because he enjoys being with little kids. He doesn't care if he screws up this kid for life if only to build up his own delusions about being some kind of groundbreaking psychiatric expert.
What's also great about this movie is that it's a good example of the adage, "There are no small parts, only small actors." Virtually everyone who appears on screen, even for just a few seconds, gets to do something memorable--Sawyer's secretary, for instance, who has adopted her boss's agitated eyebrow-plucking tic, or the expression and gestures made by the confused woman who wordlessly walks away after being directed to shop at a different store by a Macy's floorwalker. And of course, Mrs. "Simply Charming!" Shellhammer and her holding the telephone receiver wrong three times in a row. There's something to watch for just about every moment; you don't have to wait for something funny to happen as with some comedies.