- - 15 Lesser-Known Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Your Favorite Christmas Movies

Jay Wells L'EcuyerDecember 22, 2025 at 7:00 AM

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It’s that time of year! All the holiday comfort-watches are back in season, and we couldn’t be happier. Another round of the same old Christmas movies is just what the jolly, white-bearded doctor ordered. Okay, so Santa isn’t the best medical doctor (since all he ever prescribes us is gingerbread cookies), but at this point he must have his doctorate in Christmas.

We’re working on ours today, and since you can’t obtain that degree without a vast knowledge of Christmas movies, we thought we’d start with that. It’s a bit like eating your ice cream before your broccoli, but we can’t help ourselves. We know these movies like the backs of our hands anyways, so rounding up their lesser-known facts was the perfect way to get our feet wet. After that, it’s weird Christmas traditions from around the world! For now, let’s see what the McAllisters and Baileys are up to, shall we?

15 Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were really attacked by pigeons

During the Central Park scene in Home Alone 2, Pesci and Stern were covered in birdseed and roughly 300 birds just had at them. Stern has said that one bird actually flew into his mouth.

14 The Polar Express holds a world record

The Guinness Book of World Records credits The Polar Express as the first film to entirely use performance capture. Films like The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings had used it in some capacity previously, but 2004’s The Polar Express was the first to use it from start to finish.

13 Frankenstein and Tony the Tiger linked up for ‘The Grinch’

Frankenstein actor Boris Karloff provided that legendary narration for How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1966. Most people assume that Karloff sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” as well, but it was actually sung by Thurl Ravenscroft (the man who voiced Tony the Tiger for over 5 decades).

12 Will Ferrell was a mall Santa

Ferrell said, “I have some experience playing Santa Claus. Chris Kattan was my elf at this outdoor mall in Pasadena for five weeks, passing out candy canes. It was hilarious because little kids could care less about the elf. They just come right to Santa Claus. So by the second weekend, Kattan had dropped the whole affectation he was doing and was like, ‘Santa’s over there, kid.’”

11 The Santa Clause was originally much darker

The original script had Scott Calvin actually shoot Santa Claus (believing he was a robber). Tim Allen later revealed on The Tonight Show that DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was adamant that they couldn’t start a Christmas movie with Santa’s murder.

10 ’The Holiday’ whipped up a cottage in no time

The cottage in The Holiday might look like it’s been there forever, but it was actually built for the film. It only took four days to build, then set dressers spent two weeks making it look old and authentic. Director Nancy Meyers said, “It was really an amazing process to build a cottage because the people that lived there couldn’t believe that people from Hollywood were coming and building this cottage, but they did a magnificent job. We built the road, the wall around it, and put in the trees.”

9 Christmas classics with a family connection

Frank Capra was the legendary director of It's a Wonderful Life, and 43 years later, his grandson Frank Capra III was the 2nd Assistant Director on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

8 The flagpole scene in ‘A Christmas Story’ was luckily quite painless

Scott Schwartz, the actor who played Flick, revealed that a small hole was drilled into the pole, and a suction tube was shoved up their to suction his tongue to the pole for the entirety of the scene.

7 The longest-running holiday special

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has aired every year since 1964. It predates other Christmas staples like A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, making it the longest-running holiday TV special in U.S. history.

6 Stop motion stats on ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’

The movie features 227 handmade puppets, and each puppet had several different faces for each expression. Jack alone had over 400 heads. And using stop motion, the crew could only capture about 70 seconds of film per week.

5 The ‘Scrooged’ soundtrack’s long delay

It took 23 years for the movie's soundtrack to be released. The movie was released in 1988, but the soundtrack wasn't released until 2011. The album, which was limited to just 3000 copies, contained a total of 34 tracks, and the final track is a bonus track that was actually created for Trading Places.

4 Ernest Saved Christmas and Orlando!

Ernest Saves Christmas was the first major film shot almost entirely in Orlando, Florida, utilizing the Disney-MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios) and various local spots like Lake Eola, Orlando International Airport, and Church Street Station — making it a significant production for the city's growing film scene.

3 The parade in ‘Jingle All The Way’ was a massive undertaking

The big “Wintertainment” Parade climax in Jingle All the Way was filmed on the Universal backlot's "New York Street," despite the movie being set in Minnesota's Twin Cities. They recreated the festive parade using 1,500 extras and elaborate floats (including the massive Turbo Man float). It took over 3 weeks to film, and temperatures reached over 100 degrees on some shoot days.

2 The gingerbread men were the only animations on ‘Krampus’

Every creature and monster (including Krampus) was made using practical effects, except for the animated gingerbread men. Fun fact: The snow was made from the same material as diapers (which is slightly better than asbestos, we guess).

1 There's a funny deleted scene from ‘Bad Santa’

In a scene we wish made the final cut, Sarah Silverman teaches a class full of Santas how to be better at their jobs. Enjoy!

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”