30+ Little-Known Details of Our Favorite Christmas Movies
How The Nightmare Before Christmas Came to Be
Tim Burton wrote The Nightmare Before Christmas as a 3-page poem inspired by Christmas favorites Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and A Visit from St. Nicholas. But, Walt Disney Studios was less than impressed, turning it down for a half-hour Christmas special.
Burton was fired from Disney Studios in 1984, but after the success of both Beetlejuice and Batman, studio heads had a change of heart and developed his short story into a full-length feature film that has become somewhat of a cult classic.
Elf and Macy’s
Did you know that Elf, the hilarious Christmas movie about Buddy the Elf’s journey to meet his father in New York, was nearly filmed in a Macy’s department store? Director Jon Favreau pulled out all the stops to ensure the movie was as authentic as possible until he hit a snag.
Macy’s wanted the director to remove the scene where Artie Lange reveals that Santa is fake, and Jon would not hear of it. Instead, he licensed the name Gimbel’s — a long-time rival of Macy’s. And then he filmed the movie’s department store scenes in a Vancouver hospital cafeteria.
A Charlie Brown Christmas and Coca-Cola
You would think that studio bosses would go to war to bag the rights to film a Christmas special based on one of the world’s most popular comics. But, sadly, the opposite is true in the case of Lee Mendelson’s A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Having been turned down by several studios, Mendelson took his idea to the folks at Coca-Cola. They loved the idea and gave him five days to come up with an overview. Mendelson wrote this in just one, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Santa Clause Casting Debacle
We all know Tim Allen from Home Improvement fame played the role of Scott Calvin in the Christmas classic The Santa Clause. But, he was by no means the only big name in Hollywood who auditioned for the lead role.
Funnyman Bill Murray, Tom Selleck, Forrest Gump star Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, and Chevy Chase were all invited to audition. The role was of an average American dad who takes on the role of Santa to pay his dues.
With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to get cozy and pull out your favorite Christmas movies! But have you ever stopped to think about just how the movie was made? Or if there are any other secrets you didn’t know? From Home Alone almost starring Chris Farley, to A Christmas Story being based on Playboy stories, we bet you didn’t know these details about popular Christmas movies.