“FUN FACTS ABOUT CLASSIC HOLIDAY MOVIES” - 12/22/2025 (119)

We all know the iconic Holiday movies like “A Christmas Carol,” “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “White Christmas.” This week, Nan and Steve go behind the scenes of some of your favorite classic holiday movies and dig up some fun facts about these films that you may or may not know. We talk about the snow, the casting, the locations, and a lot more! Join in the fun as they conjure up holiday cheer with these great films.

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources:

Christmas in The Movies (2023), by Jeremy Arnold;

Christmas In Classic Films (2022), by Jacqueline T. Lynch;

The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (2018), edited by R. Barfton Palmer & Murray Pomerance;

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (2010), by Alonso Duaralde;

Ginger: My Story (2008), by Ginger Rogers;

Christmas At The Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British, and European Cinema (2000), edited by Mark Connelly;

It’s Christmas Time At The Movies (1998), by Gary J & Susan Svehla;

AMC American Movie Classics: Greatest Christmas Movies (1998), by Frank Thompson;

The ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ Book (1986), by Jeanine Basinger;

Great Movie Directors (1986), by Ted Sennett;

The Films of Frank Capra (1977), by Victor Scherle & Wiliam Turner Levy;

"35 Surprising ‘White Christmas’ Movie Facts About the Cast, Songs & More,” October 31, 2024, Good Housekeeping;

“A Short History of Fake Snow In Holiday Movies:  From ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ to Harry Potter,” December 15, 2021, LAist.com;

“The Song That Changed Christmas,”October 5, 2016, by Will Friedwald, Wall Street Journal;

“It’s A Wonderful Life: Rare Photos From the Set of a Holiday Classic,” November 26, 2013, by Ben Cosgrove, Time magazine;

“On A Wing and a Prayer,” December 23, 2006, by Stephen Cox, LA Times;

“Whose Life Was It, Anyway?” December 15, 1996, by Steven Smith, LA Times;

“White Christmas: Rosemary Clooney Remembers Everyone’s Favorite Christmas Musical,” December 1994, by Frank Thompson, Pulse! Magazine;

“Less Than Wonderful: James Walcott Reassesses Capra’s Christmas Classic,” December 1986, Vanity Fair;

“Capra’s Christmas Classic: Yes, Virginia, It’s A Wonderful Life,” December 1986, by Trea Hoving, Connoisseur;

“All I Want For Christmas is a VCR,” December 24, 1985, L.A. Herald-Examiner;

“Bing, Astaire Bow Out, Par Recasting ‘Xmas’,”January 7, 1953,  Variety;

“Bing Bobs Back into ‘Christmas’ Cast at Par,” January 22, 1953, Variety, 

“White Christmas: From Pop Tune to Picture,” October 18, 1953, by Thomas Wood, New York Times;

“Around the Sets,” August 13, 1944, L.A. Examiner;

TCM.com;

IMDBPro.com;

Movies Mentioned: 

A Christmas Carol (1938), starring Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, June Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, Barry McKay, and Lynne Carver;

Christmas In Connecticut (1945), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, Reginald Gardiner, Robert Shayne, and Una O’Connor;

It’s A Wonderful Life (1947), starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Gloria Grahame, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, H.B. Warner,  Frank Albertson, Samuel S, Hind, Mary Treen, Todd Karnes, Virginia Patton, Sarah Edwards, Sheldon Leonard, and Lillian Randolph;

White Christmas (1954), starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Anne Whitfield, and Mary Wickes;

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