It’s A Wonderful Life
It’s A Wonderful Life was considered a flop upon release, and didn’t become a classic until years later. 6,000 gallons of soap, water and foamite were used for onscreen snow (it was a sweltering 90 degrees on some filming days) to cover the Bedford Falls set, which spanned 4 acres and contained 75 buildings.
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story takes place in Indiana, but was filmed in Cleveland. The director, Bob Clark, also directed the movie Porky’s (another classic for different reasons). Remember the scene where Flick freezes his tongue to a flagpole? Well, a secret suction tube was used to create the illusion. Trust us--it’s not pretty doing it the real way.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas was filmed in stop-motion. This technique uses 24 frames for each second of film. This means each model was repositioned 24 times per second, and the run time of the film meant there were 110,000 repositioned frames. That took three years to film. Oh, and Jack Skellington had 400 different distinctly drawn heads.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation had quite the electricity bill. The rooftop decorations consisted of 25,000 imported, Italian twinkle lights. Really. Written by John Hughes, Christmas Vacation was the final film appearance for Mae Questel, who played Aunt Bethany. She got her start voicing Betty Boop for cartoons in 1930.
Scrooged
Scrooged is Bill Murray’s take on Ebenezer Scrooge. However, he’s not the only Murray in the film. His brothers Brian Doyle, Joel, and John make appearances as well. David Johansen, who played the ghost of Christmas past, is better known as Buster Poindexter, singer of "Hot, Hot, Hot."