Holidays

Christmas Movies

Holidays
Christmas Movies
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Did you know? Many people assume Die Hard was released as a Christmas movie, but it was actually released in July 1988 as a summer blockbuster. elaborate

Fact 1 of 23

23 facts about Christmas Movies

  1. 1
    It is widely believed that Coca-Cola invented the modern image of Santa Claus, but the red-suited man appeared in advertisements and illustrations long before the company used him.
  2. 2
    The animators for The Nightmare Before Christmas used a technique called replacement animation, where they physically swapped out mouth pieces on the puppets every single frame to sync the dialogue.
  3. 3
    In Elf, Buddy's diet of candy and syrup actually made Will Ferrell feel so sick that he struggled to film the scene where he eats spaghetti with candy.
  4. 4
    The song You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, who is also the famous voice behind Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes cereal.
  5. 5
    Many people believe that the film White Christmas was the first to feature the song of the same name, but Bing Crosby actually introduced the song in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn years earlier.
  6. 6
    In the movie The Polar Express, the train conductor was modeled after and voiced by Tom Hanks, who actually played five different characters in the film.
  7. 7
    The iconic song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was originally written with much sadder lyrics that the studio forced the songwriter to change to be more cheerful.
  8. 8
    In Jingle All the Way, the toy Turbo Man was actually a custom-built prop that was never released as a real retail product at the time the movie was released.
  9. 9
    During the production of The Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine played his role of Scrooge completely straight, as if he were performing in a serious dramatic stage play.
  10. 10
    Some believe the song Silent Night was a folk song from the Middle Ages, but it was actually composed in Austria in 1818 by a local priest and a schoolteacher.
  11. 11
    The house used for the exterior of the Griswolds' home in Christmas Vacation is located on the same studio lot as the house from the television show Bewitched.
  12. 12
    In the movie Elf, the actor who plays the doctor is the same person who directed the film, Jon Favreau.
  13. 13
    Some people believe Miracle on 34th Street is based on a real court case, but it was purely a work of fiction written to address post-war cynicism.
  14. 14
    The voice of the Grinch in the classic cartoon is actually Boris Karloff, who is more famous for playing Frankenstein's monster.
  15. 15
    People often think that the song Let It Snow was written for a Christmas movie, but it was actually written during a record-breaking summer heatwave in California.
  16. 16
    In the movie Klaus, the filmmakers used a new lighting technique to make 2D hand-drawn animation look like it had three-dimensional volume.
  17. 17
    The total budget for the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was so low that the puppets were frequently repaired with tape and glue during the shoot.
  18. 18
    While the movie White Christmas is famous for the song of the same name, Bing Crosby actually first sang it in the film Holiday Inn years earlier.
  19. 19
    The character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by an employee at Montgomery Ward department store to help sell coloring books during the holidays.
  20. 20
    In A Charlie Brown Christmas, the child actors were told to just act like themselves, leading to some of the unscripted stumbles heard in the final audio.
  21. 21
    Many people assume Die Hard was released as a Christmas movie, but it was actually released in July 1988 as a summer blockbuster.
  22. 22
    In the movie Home Alone, the fake film Kevin watches called Angels with Filthy Souls was created specifically for the movie and is not an actual classic gangster film from the 1940s.
  23. 23
    The movie A Christmas Story is set in the 1940s, but it was not filmed in Indiana; the house used for the exterior shots is actually located in Cleveland, Ohio, and is now a museum.
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