One of the great Christmas traditions is to dust off the old DVD player or flip on the television and watch a film that you seem to only watch at Christmas. Some are holiday classics while others have come to be associated with the holidays through pop culture and tradition. Below are 10 films that I found on a number of ‘Best Christmas Movies Ever‘ lists.
A little known fact: practically any movie ever made will have a well-populated entry on IMDb. From there you will usually find a ‘trivia’ section filled with quirky and obscure facts about the movie. So with that, here are 10 things you never about 10 famous Christmas movies, happy holidays everyone!
1. Home Alone (1990)
This gif explains why Kevin’s parents didn’t notice an extra airline ticket when they checked into their flight
2. Scrooged (1988)
When the Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) grabbed Bill Murray’s lip she tore his lip so badly that filming had to be halted for several days. [source]
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3. Love Actually (2003)
Actor Kris Marshall, who played Colin Frissell in the film, returned his pay check for the scene where the three American girls undress him. He said he had such a great time having three girls undress him for twenty-one takes that he was willing to do it for free, thus returning his check for that day. [source]
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4. Elf (2003)
Almost all of the footage of Buddy first arriving in New York City was filmed on the last day of shooting. It was actually just the director (Jon Favreau), Will Ferrell and a cameraman driving around the city looking for locations to shoot. They would jump out and ask pedestrians if they would be willing to be extras for some quick cash while Ferrell paraded around acting like Buddy. [source]
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5. Die Hard (1988)
Bruce Willis was actually the sixth choice for the main character! It originally went to Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Sylvester Stallone, then Burt Reynolds, then Richard Gere, then Harrison Ford, and then Mel Gibson before Willis eventually got the part. [source]
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Apparently the prosthetic make-up Jim Carrey wore for the film took over 3 hours each day to apply. Carrey felt so horribly confined and uncomfortable in the latex skin he actually got counselling from a Navy SEAL who taught him torture-resistance techniques for coping. [source]
7. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Although Tim Burton is typically associated as the creator and director of the film he was not greatly involved in the process. On the film, director Henry Selick reflects: “It’s as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn’t involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like ‘a Tim Burton film’, which is not so different from my own films. I don’t want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total.” Burton found production difficult because he was directing Batman Returns and in pre-production of Ed Wood at the time. [source]
8. The Polar Express (2004)
The real name of the Hero Boy is never mentioned in the film. [source]
9. The Santa Clause (1994)
Disney, who has a policy of not hiring any ex-convicts, made an exception for Tim Allen, who starred as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in the film [source]. On October 2, 1978, Allen was arrested in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport for possession of over 650 grams (1.4 lb) of cocaine. He subsequently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges, and provided the names of other dealers in exchange for a sentence of three to seven years rather than a possible life imprisonment. He was paroled on June 12, 1981, after serving 2 years and 4 months in Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota. [source]
10. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Despite being a “Christmas movie,” Christmas Day is never actually seen. The film ends on Christmas Eve. [source]
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