New Christmas movies appear every year, but nothing can top these classic family comedies, watched by millions and millions of people across the globe each year. Whilst it’s highly likely everyone and their dog has seen at least one of these holiday masterpieces, there are some interesting facts and surprising pieces of trivia about each one that you may not have known…
Home Alone (1990)
John Hughes wrote this Christmas classic, along with its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), which already meant it was going to be a great family comedy, like his other smash hits of the eighties and nineties. Starring Macaulay Culkin as the cheeky Kevin McCallister, who accidentally gets left behind on a family vacation. Home Alone has become one of the greatest Christmas comedies of all time, even becoming an inadvertent national tradition in Poland. Some of the best characters in the first two movies are the nasty burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Apparently neither of them thought the movie would be a great success, so purposely gave over-exaggerated performances, with Pesci even avoiding Culkin on set so the young boy would think he was mean.
Scrooged (1988)
Based on the literary Christmas classic by Charles Dickens, Scrooged stars Bill Murray as the pessimistic and sardonic Frank Cross, inspired by Ebenezer Scrooge. Four years after his success with Ghostbusters, Murray was yet again visited by three ghosts, in order to help him find his love of Christmas again. The director, Richard Donner, and Murray didn’t get along, both of them having different visions for the outcome of the film. But that wasn’t the only tension on set. Donner asked if everyone could have Christmas off, but the bosses at Paramount declined. Not wanting to make his crew work on the 25th, he found a loophole – firing them all on Christmas Eve, and re-hiring them on Boxing Day. Needless to say, it worked!
Elf (2003)
Starring Will Ferrell as Buddy the oversized Elf, sent from Santa’s Grotto into the real world. When he meets his real father, who definitely ended up on Santa’s Naughty List, Buddy has to spread Christmas cheer to a crowd of cynical New Yorkers. Perhaps the most iconic scene is when Buddy makes a ‘spaghetti sundae’, which represents what a child’s idea of the greatest meal ever. However, as an adult matures, so do their palates, so when Will Ferrell tried this food creation for the first time, he vomited!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Forget the 2018 animated reboot, the 2000 live-action version starring Jim Carrey as the mean, sarcastic Grinch, always tops everyone’s list as one of the best Christmas comedies. Based on Dr. Seuss’s book of the same name, this Ron Howard flick was not an easy film to make. The Grinch’s make-up and prosthetics took two hours to apply and one hour to remove, which Carrey had to endure for ninety-two days of filming. Including all the Whos of Whoville, this film had the largest number of characters in costumes and heavy make-up since The Wizard of Oz!
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Another Christmas family comedy written by the great John Hughes; this is the third film in the National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise. Like the other films in the series, Christmas Vacation features the Griswolds trying to enjoy a family holiday, which inevitably turns into a disaster. Chris Columbus was actually meant to direct this film, however it immediately became clear he could not work with star Chevy Chase, and asked Hughes if there was another film he could work on, who pointed him to his other Christmas movie, Home Alone.
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