30 Surprising Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Movies

Mar. 15, 2025

Peter Billingsley inA Christmas Story(1983).Photo: MGM/Shutterstock

We can’t blame you for thinking you know all there is to know about your favorite beloved holiday flicks. After all, annual 24-hour marathons and streaming access make it almosttooeasy to unintentionally learn every heartwarming and hilarious line.

But even the most diehard Christmas movie fanatics still have secrets to discover, from just what it took to bring storybook characters to life, to the cameos you might have missed even on your 10th viewing.

Read on for the tea.

1. Now a beloved classic,It’s a Wonderful Lifewas atotal box office flopwhen it was released in 1946.

2. Emma Thompsonwore a fat suitwhile filmingLove Actually.

3. Some of the Jean Shepherd stories that eventually made it to theA Christmas Storyscriptwere first published inPlayboy.

4. Jim Carreyworked with a CIA specialistwho trained agents to survive torture in order to get through the painful makeup process forDr. Seuss’How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

5. Then 8-year-old Natalie WoodbelievedherMiracle on 34th Streetcostar Edmund Gwenn was actually Santa Claus.

6. According toThe Nightmare Before Christmas' supervising animator Eric Leighton,the film was shot at 24 frames per second, meaning the characters had to be posed 24 different times for each second of the film.

7. An episode ofMythBustersprovedthat a tongue can instantly get stuck to a freezing pole à laA Christmas Story.

8. Will Ferrell ate so much sugar while filmingElfthathe had trouble sleeping.

9. John Candy shot all of hisHome Alonescenes in one long23-hour dayon set.

10. Eric Lloyd, who played Charlie inTheSanta Clause, broke his front teeth in a fall right before filming and had to wear prosthetics for the shoot.

13.A Christmas Storychild star Peter Billingsley wasthe first of thousandsto audition for the role. And he recently revealed that while on set, someone from the props departmentgave him real chewing tobaccoto ingest during a key scene — a move that made the 12-year-old ill.

14. Gonzo wasoriginally going to portray Christmas Yet to ComeinThe Muppet Christmas Carol. He eventually took on the role of Charles Dickens because, asdirector Brian Henson said, he was “the least likely character to be Charles Dickens.”

15.Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s stop-motion animationwas produced in Japan, while most of the audio was recorded in Canada.

16. The shots of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade inMiracle on 34th Streetare real: Star Edmund Gwenn actually took to a float as Santa for the 1946 celebration.

17. Jim Carrey wasoriginally slated to star inElf.

18.The Santa Clausejoke involving “1-800-SPANK-ME” caused massive problems for parents when kids discovered it connected them to an actual phone sex hotline. Some viewers who dialed the numberreportedly racked up hundreds of dollars in phone bills.

19. Composer Danny Elfman still didn’t have a script when it came time to write the music forThe Nightmare Before Christmas,so he based his songs only on conversations with and sketches from director Tim Burton.

20. Grown-upA Christmas Storystar Peter Billingsley has anuncredited cameoinElf.

21.Vincent Price was consideredfor the part ofIt’s a Wonderful Lifevillain Mr. Potter.

22. The Grinch was black-and-white in the original Dr. Seuss book, but directorChuck Jones had the idea to make him greenfor the 1966 animated feature.

23. After the release ofHome Alone 2, families flocked to N.Y.C.’s Plaza Hotel, where they could recreate Kevin’s adventure inSuite 411, “Kevin’s Suite,” for $1,100 a night.

24.Writer Richard Curtis first conceivedLove Actuallyas two separate filmsand had planned entire movies following the storylines of Hugh Grant and Colin Firth’s characters.

26. It tookTheNightmare Before Christmasteam an entire week tofinish shooting each minuteof the completed film.

27. Macaulay Culkin’s little brother Kieran had a small role as Kevin’s bed-wetting cousin inHome AloneandHome Alone 2.

28.Flash Gordon made an appearancein a deleted fantasy scene fromA Christmas Story.

29. Despite being a holiday movie,Miracle on 34th Streethit theaters in May, because 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck believed more people went to the movies in the summer.

30.Rudolphcreator Robert Mayconsidered the names Reginald and Rollofor the reindeer.

source: people.com