Interesting And Strange Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Movies

#1 Miles Davis Cameo In Scrooged

Miles Davis has a cameo in the Christmas film, Scrooged. Bill Murray insults Davis during the Christmas carol scene.

#2 Scrooged

Bill Murray plays the star role in Scrooged, but three of his five brothers also had supporting roles in the film. John Murray plays James Cross, Brian Doyle-Murray plays Earl Cross, and Joel Murray was also granted a cameo. The brothers also played together in the film Caddyshack

#3 It's A Wonderful Life

In It's A Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey seems rather sweaty on camera during the bridge scene while snow falls all around him. This is because the scene wasn't actually shot in snowy conditions, but outside in 90 degrees weather. However, the sweat on his face while it's snowing plays perfectly for his nervous breakdown.

#4 Elf

In the film, Elf, Gimbels Department Store wasn't a fictional department store. In fact, it was a competitor of Macy's in New York until it closed down in 1987 although the exterior scene shot outside the store is actually the 34th Street Macy's in Manhattan. Gimbels was also featured in Miracle on 34th Street.

#5 Home Alone

The five-bedroom residence at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois, is the same exact house used in Home Alone. The house was owned by John and Cynthia Abendshien until they sold the property for $1.585 million. The house has appreciated in value ever since the movie's release and has become a major tourist attraction.

#6 A Christmas Story

In A Christmas Story, Ralphie's friend sticks his tongue to a cold metal pole in the school playground after being double dog dared to do so. His tongue then gets stuck to the pole, which actually happened to the child actor during the filming of the movie. And you thought his panic was fake? It's easy to get your tongue stuck to a pole, so don't try it at home. Myth Busters even proved it to us!

#7 Home Alone

Macaulay Culkin's younger brother played the role of the bed-wetting cousin, Fuller, in Home Alone.

#8 How The Grinch Stole Christmas/Grinch

In Dr. Seuss' original book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch was colored black and white with shades of red, but Looney Toons animator, Chuck Jones, changed the Grinch's color to green for the movie because it reminded him of ugly rental cars. The color stuck with the story ever since, even though Dr. Seuss fought for it to remain with the original colors he'd chosen.

#9 The Santa Clause

In the first release of "The Santa Clause," Tim Allen says "1-800-SPANK-ME" as a joke. This ended up being an actual phone sex service line, so Disney tried to buy and discontinue the number.

#10 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Yukon Cornelius, the miner from the Christmas film Rudolph, licks his pickaxe throughout the story. Why? "Because he was a peppermint prospector in the original version."

#11 Christmas Vacation

John Hughes wrote this story and originally called it Christmas '59, but eventually the title of the film was renamed to Christmas Vacation.

#12 A Christmas Story

The house from A Christmas Story does exist. It has been preserved as a museum and allows fans to bid on a trip to the house for a 2-night sleepover on Christmas Eve and Christmas for four people. Gifts are open in the living room and two BB guns are wrapped every time under the tree! This year's visitors paid a little over $6,000 on Ebay for the A Christmas Story experience.

#13 A Christmas Story

Peter Billingsley played the famous role, Ralphie, in A Christmas Story. What people don't know is that he was featured in another Christmas flick as an elf. Billingsley played Ming Ming in Elf. Billingsley and director Jon Favreau (along with actor Vince Vaughn) are all good friends!

#14 A Christmas Story

Ralphie says he wants the Red Ryder BB Gun 28 times throughout the course of A Christmas Story. Now that's commitment.

#15 It's A Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life was deemed communist propaganda by the FBI. According to Professor John Noakes of Franklin and Marshall College, the FBI thought "Life smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man."

#16 Christmas Vacation

In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a small earthquake occurred during production. They were shooting the arrival scene of Uncle Louis and Aunt Bethany, and even though the camera shook a little they still used the clip in the movie.

#17 Home Alone

The burglar in Home Alone, Daniel Stern, agreed to shoot a scene with a real life tarantula on his face, but under the one condition that it was shot in one take. His screams had to be dubbed into the film later on because screaming would have frightened the tarantula, causing it to bite him.

#18 The Polar Express

In The Polar Express, the conductor announces "11344 Edbrooke" in the beginning of the film. The real street address is for a home in Chicago that director Robert Zemeckis grew up in.

#19 Miracle On 34th Street

In the film Miracle on 34th Street, the scenes of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are real shots of footage from the 1946 parade. The movie brought the traditional parade to the national spotlight. Edmund Gwenn played Santa Claus in both the movie and in the 1946 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

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