We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their favorite behind-the-scenes Christmas movie facts. Here are the best results.
Note: Not all submissions are from Community users.
1.
In Elf, all of the elaborate Christmas decorations in the store took the art department weeks to build, so the fight between Buddy and the mall Santa had to be done in one take.
2.
In The Polar Express, Josh Hutcherson did all the motion-capture work for Hero Boy, while Daryl Sabara provided the voice.
Warner Bros. Pictures, Focus Features, Dimension Films
3.
In Love Actually, they originally shot an additional (and heartbreaking) storyline that included the school’s headmistress and her partner, who was battling a terminal illness.
Studio Canal
Writer-director Richard Curtis revealed in the DVD extras that the scenes ultimately had to be cut, but you can watch one of them here.
4.
In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, both Eddie Murphy and Jack Nicholson were originally considered for the role of the Grinch.
Universal Pictures, NBC, Columbia Pictures
5.
In Home Alone, the prop department originally created a fake tarantula to put on Daniel Stern’s face, but the director made them use a real one.
20th Century Fox
Also, there’s a rumor that Daniel Stern mimed his scream during the scene, but that’s not actually true! While prepping for the scene, the animal trainer on set said, “Just don’t make any sudden, threatening moves, and you’ll be fine.” Daniel responded, “But I’m going to be screaming in Barry’s face. Do you think he’ll feel threatened by that?!” The animal trainer simply said, “Barry doesn’t have ears. He can’t hear. Relax.”
6.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas, one single minute of footage took about a week to shoot, and the whole stop motion movie took three years to make.
7.
In It’s a Wonderful Life, writer-director Frank Capra helped create a new type of artificial snow because the current movie method (using Cornflakes that were painted white) was too noisy when the actors had to walk in scenes.
Liberty Films
This new technique made filming a lot easier for Capra, rather than having to film the picture and audio separately and dub it in later. It also earned Russell Shearman and his team a special Technical Achievement Award at the Oscars.
8.
In Miracle on 34th Street, the parade scenes were shot on location during the 1946 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which meant they only got one morning to film everything.
20th Century Fox
Maureen O’Hara wrote in her autobiography that Edmund Gwenn, who won an Oscar for playing Kris Kringle in the movie, actually played Santa in the 1946 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, because that was the only way they’d be able to get the necessary shots for the movie.
9.
In How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Jim Carrey had to complete torture-endurance training from the CIA to help him get through the daily 8.5 hours of Grinch makeup.
10.
In Four Christmases, the ticket agent was actually played by Peter Billingsley, aka Ming Ming from Elf and Ralphie from A Christmas Story.
New Line Cinema, MGM
11.
In A Charlie Brown Christmas, one of the producers wasn’t thrilled with a cut of the Christmas special and suggested that they add a laugh track, causing Charles M. Schulz to walk out of the room.
CBS
Schulz got his way, but apparently they created a version of A Charlie Brown Christmas with a laugh track as a backup, just in case the original didn’t perform well, ratings-wise.
12.
In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Donald Trump would only give the production team a permit to film in the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time, if they wrote him into the movie.
20th Century Fox
Matt Damon revealed that this was actually really common: “The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part. Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it. You have to waste an hour of your day with a bullshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, “Hello, Mr. Trump!” — you had to call him by name — and then he exits. You waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out. But I guess in Home Alone 2 they left it in.”
13.
In Jingle all the Way, the whole movie was actually inspired by the Cabbage Patch Kids craze from the Christmas season of 1983.
1492 Pictures
14.
In Elf, none of the shots with Buddy at the North Pole involved CGI or special effects – it was all done with forced perspective.
15.
In Miracle on 34th Street, actor John Payne, who played Fred Gailey, loved the movie so much that he actually wrote a sequel to the Christmas classic when he was older.
20th Century Fox
In Maureen O’Hara’s autobiography, she said, “We talked about it for years, and he eventually even wrote a screenplay sequel. He was going to send it to me but tragically died before he could get around to it. I never saw it and have often wondered what happened to it.”
16.
In Die Hard, Bruce Willis’ character spent most of the movie doing crazy things (like stepping on glass) while barefoot, so he actually wore fake rubber feet.
20th Century Fox
17.
In The Holiday, the website that Iris and Amanda used to swap houses is actually real.
Relativity Media
18.
In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, there was a scene where Rusty watched Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, which was a full-circle moment because Capra’s grandson actually worked on Christmas Vacation.
Warner Bros.
His grandson, Frank Capra III, was the second assistant director on the film.
19.
In Elf, Will Ferrell, Jon Favreau, and a single cameraman ran through New York on the final day of shooting and interacted with random people on the streets to film the “Buddy discovers New York” montage.
New Line Cinema
20.
In Last Holiday, the deluxe hotel that Queen Latifah’s character stays at, the Grandhotel Pupp, is a real-life hotel in the Czech Republic.
Paramount Pictures
The Grandhotel Pupp was also featured in Casino Royale.
21.
In Meet Me in St. Louis, Margaret O’Brien’s mother would get her to cry on command while filming the sad scenes by telling her that her rival actor on the MGM lot was a better crier than her.
MGM
Vincente Minelli (Judy Garland’s husband) wrote in his book that he got Margaret to cry by telling her that her dog died, but Margaret said that neither her mom nor Judy Garland would stand for that sort of thing.
Instead, she said: “The way they got me to cry is that June Allyson and I were in competition as the best criers on the MGM lot. So when I was having trouble crying, my mother would come over to me and say, ‘I’ll have the makeup man put the false tears down your face, but June is such a great, great actress – she always cries real tears. And then I started crying, because I couldn’t let June win the competition.'”
22.
In It’s a Wonderful Life, the whole holiday picture was actually shot in the summer of 1946, and it occasionally got so hot that production literally had to be shut down for a few days.
Liberty Films
23.
And in The Santa Clause, Disney had a strict policy against hiring ex-cons, but Tim Allen, who was arrested in 1978 for the possession of nearly 1.5 pounds of cocaine, was given an exception.
Kalamazoo Police Department, Walt Disney Pictures
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