1'Home Alone' could've starred Chris Farley.
NBC//Getty ImagesThe Saturday Night Live alum attended an audition for the role of Santa, but the funny man behind the "motivational Santa" skit ultimately lost out on the part. "Apparently, he was out all night and had just been dropped off after a night of shenanigans," Ken Hudson Campbell, who ultimately snagged the part, told Chicago magazine.
2Some 'Home Alone' pranks were very much real.
20th Century FoxThere's no CGI trickery in Home Alone, director Chris Columbus told Chicago magazine — meaning the cast and crew had to get creative (and brave) to stage the elaborate booby traps. Actor Daniel Stern really had to put a tarantula on his face in order to play the bungling "Wet Bandit" Marv, he told the Hollywood Reporter. Luckily for his bare feet, however, the ornaments he steps on while breaking into the McCallister home weren't made of real glass.
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3Catherine O'Hara and John Candy improvised their 'Home Alone' scenes.
Ron Galella//Getty ImagesThe Beetlejuice and Schitt's Creek star went off script for her storyline with John Candy, a.k.a. Gus Polinski, Polka King of the Midwest. "I swear we worked for 21 hours straight, improvising," she recalled. "[Director Chris Columbus] told me later how we couldn’t use most of it. He laughed and said, 'You’re supposed to be looking for your kid, and you’re just having a good time with these guys in a truck.'"
4'A Christmas Story' is based on short stories published in 'Playboy.'
Karen Longo//Getty ImagesA collection of semi-autobiographical short stories inspired the screenplay for this Christmas classic. Writer Jean Shepherd's tales of his Midwestern upbringing appeared in Playboy magazine between 1964 and 1966, and he later published them as an anthology titled In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.
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5The department store in 'A Christmas Story' cleaned up the script.
Archive Photos//Getty ImagesDirector Bob Clark reportedly scouted more than 20 different cities for A Christmas Story. He ultimately picking Cleveland, Ohio, for its department store. Higbee's was the only flagship store willing to permit filming but on one condition: The movie could not contain any profanity. This specific caveat is why The Old Man grumbles incoherently instead cursing at his clanking furnace, according to A Christmas Story House and Museum.
RELATED: Where Was A Christmas Story Filmed?
6'Elf' didn't use any CGI except for some snowing.
Theo Wargo//Getty ImagesInstead, the movie relies on stop-motion animation and forced perspective to create the elves' workshop in the North Pole. "The forced perspective is where you build two sets, one smaller than the other," director Jon Favreau told Rolling Stone. "One set is raised and closer and smaller, and one is bigger and further away ... If you look closely, you can see the two sets meet because we didn’t use CGI to paint over that or blur it." Jon even took home a cool souvenir from filming: a Louisville Slugger that’s four and a half feet long.
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7'Elf' almost filmed at Macy's.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez//Getty Images"Macy’s was willing to let us shoot there, use their Santaland, even incorporate us into the parade," Jon told Rolling Stone. "However, one of the stipulations was, we would have had to remove the Artie Lange scene, where Santa is revealed to be a fake, because their Santa has to be real." Ultimately, he decided against the Macy's tie-in, opting to instead license the Gimbel's name (a former competitor) and film the scenes at a hospital cafeteria in Vancouver.
8'Elf' added songs specifically for Zooey Deschanel.
NBC//Getty ImagesThen a little-known actress, Zooey Deschanel nabbed the part of Buddy's love-interest Jovie and impressed Jon so much with her singing, he added it to the script. "I wrote it in because she has that great Doris Day voice," he said.
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9'It's a Wonderful Life' almost had a completely different plot.
Archive Photos//Getty ImagesRKO had many different writers work on the screenplay for this favorite movie. One version from Dalton Trumbo had George Bailey as an increasingly cynical politician who tries to commit suicide after losing an election. Instead of showing George how Bedford Falls would look if he'd never been born, the angel revealed what would've happened if he'd gone into business instead of politics.
10Set designers created a four-acre town for 'It's a Wonderful Life'.
Bettmann//Getty ImagesThe crew really went the extra mile to create "Bedford Falls" at the RKO movie ranch in Encino, California. The set included a 300-yard main street with 75 buildings and a residential neighborhood. Director Frank Capra even asked for a tree-lined parkway, a working bank set and 20 full-grown oak trees. For added authenticity, pigeons, cats and dogs roamed the streets.
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11'It's a Wonderful Life' created a new kind of snow.
John Springer Collection//Getty ImagesBefore the 1946 film, movie makers had used untoasted cornflakes to sub in for snow on set, but the crunchy stuff actually made such a racket under actors' feet, dialogue needed re-dubbing afterward. RKO's head of special effects, Russell Shearman, came up with a much better solution for faking the white stuff: a combination of water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar called "chemical snow."
12Tim Allen had stiff competition for 'The Santa Clause'.
Archive Photos//Getty ImagesBill Murray and Chevy Chase each received invitations to star, but both turned down the part of Scott Calvin. Even then, Tom Selleck, Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson also drew consideration before the Home Improvement comedian locked down the part.
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13'The Santa Clause' featured real reindeer from the Toronto Zoo.
Archive Photos//Getty ImagesFilmed in the Greater Toronto area, The Santa Clause relied on the local zoo for casting animal actors capable of playing Santa's sled-pulling team. The trains used in the North Pole scene and the start of the film aren't real locomotives, though. They're actually toy-sized LGB models.
14'The Nightmare Before Christmas' was originally pitched as a TV special.
Barry King//Getty ImagesWhile working for Walt Disney Feature Animation, Tim Burton wrote a three-page poem inspired by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and A Visit from St. Nicholas. His employer considered developing the story as a short film or 30-minute holiday television special, but later decided it was "too weird." Disney even fired Tim in 1984, but after the director made hit films like Beetlejuice and Batman, they decided to move forward with the project — this time as a feature-length film.
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15'The Nightmare Before Christmas' used a total of 227 puppets.
Barry King//Getty ImagesThe ambitious stop-motion animation project required a crew of more than 120 workers, 20 sound stages and hundreds of puppets. Jack Skellington alone had around 400 different heads for a wide range of emotions. All together, more than 109,000 frames were taken for the film.
16Coca-Cola made 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' possible.
ABC Photo Archives//Getty ImagesTV producer Lee Mendelson first pitched a documentary about Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts to different networks, but not one bit. Finally, he got some good news: The Coca-Cola Company wanted a Schulz holiday special. "The bad news is that today is Wednesday, and they'll need an outline in Atlanta by Monday," the ad agency told Lee. Scrapping their original plans, Lee and Charles quickly prepped an overview in less than one day, describing "winter scenes, a school play, a scene to be read from the Bible and a sound track combining jazz and traditional music." Coca-Cola agreed to the plan — but gave the team only six month to bring the project to life.
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17Producers picked slightly off-key music for 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' on purpose.
ABC Photo Archives//Getty ImagesSoundtrack standouts "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" both feature real children singing. The choir director wanted perfection from his pint-sized musicians, but Lee and composer Vince Guaraldi wanted "kids to sound like kids." The final cut includes a slightly off-key version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" for that reason.
18The network thought 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' would be a disaster.
ABC Photo Archives//Getty ImagesThe project had taken a number of risks, going the unorthodox route of hiring child actors, omitting a laugh track and using a jazz score. These same choices would later earn A Charlie Brown Christmas high ratings and critical acclaim from critics — plus an Emmy and Peabody Award.
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19John Candy nearly starred in 'Last Holiday' instead of Queen Latifah.
Kevin Winter//Getty ImagesThe original 1950 film featured a leading character named George Bird who spends his last days living in luxury after receiving an imminently fatal diagnosis. Decades later, screenwriters rebooted the movie with the hopes John Candy would star, but the actor died in 1994. Eventually, Queen Latifah's agent read the script and suggested recasting the actress as "Georgia Byrd" instead.
20Food Network chefs prepared the gourmet menu seen in 'Last Holiday'.
Rodrigo Varela//Getty ImagesIn the movie, Georgia watches Emeril Live for cooking help, but real professional chefs guided the cuisine behind the scenes. The recipes for the film's elaborate dishes — including lobster salad, duck hash, spiced lamb shanks and roasted quail — were then published on Food Network's website. To promote the film, Queen Latifah even appeared on Emeril Lagasse's show.

Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at Good Housekeeping, including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl.
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