9 amazing facts you didn't know about your favourite Christmas movies
Christmas movies are heart-warming bundles of festive joy, perfect for watching while you enjoy a bit too much mulled wine.
However, some rather dark tales and some plain old WTF facts lie beneath your favourite Christmas movies. Here are a few things you might not know…
Elf was responsible for numerous car crashes
Imagine driving home from work, looking out the window and seeing Will Ferrell dressed as Christmas elf. You'd struggle to stay on the road, wouldn't you?
So it's no surprise that Buddy the Elf's iconic stroll down the Lincoln Tunnel caused multiple "˜minor traffic accidents' in real life. We're sure everyone was fine after a bowl of spaghetti and maple syrup.
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Will Ferrell turned down a lot of money for Elf 2
$29 million, to be precise. That's a lot of presents.
Despite public demand for a sequel to Elf, Ferrell isn't having any of it. When asked about the sequel, he said: "˜I just think it would look slightly pathetic if I tried to squeeze back in the elf tights'. We'd happily look slightly pathetic for $29 million.
Die Hard made Bruce Willis deaf
To make everyone's favourite Christmas movie (don't deny it) as realistic as possible, director John McTiernan loaded the film's guns with extra loud blanks.
Sadly, Bruce Willis fired one while under a table and ended up with permanent hearing loss. Still, it didn't stop him donning the increasingly grubby vest for 4 sequels.
Each Gremlin in Gremlins cost over $30,000 to make
Ever wanted your own movie quality Mogwai? Well, you best have $30,000 in the bank.
Each Gremlin was animatronic, which meant they cost an absolute fortune to make. Keen to protect their investment (and no doubt aware how cute they were), the filmmakers had security check people before leaving the set to make sure they hadn't pocketed a furry goldmine.
Joe Pesci tormented Macaulay Culkin for real in Home Alone
If you've seen Goodfellas, you'll know that Joe Pesci is a pretty terrifying dude.
So imagine how poor old Macaulay Culkin, in one of his first film roles, felt about working with him… especially when Pesci spent most of his time deliberately avoiding Culkin to give him the heebie jeebies.
When they finally met, Pesci nearly bit Culkin's finger off and left him with a scar. Probably would have been easier to show him Goodfellas, to be honest.
According to doctors, Kevin would have killed Marv and Harry from Home Alone multiple times
Many of Kevin's home defence methods, such as dropping an iron and a paint can onto someone's head, would have killed the burglars from Home Alone stone dead, sending Kevin for a long stint in juvenile detention and presumably landing his parents in jail too.
Even if Kevin didn't kill the burglars, his methods would have caused severe injury. The blowtorch, for example, would have burnt Joe Pesci's scalp off, while the BB gunshot to the balls would have caused severe genital trauma "" not exactly top of anyone's Christmas list…
The Santa Clause contained an advert for a sex line
During the otherwise wholesome The Santa Clause, Tim Allen utters a sarcastic remark which includes the hi-lar-ious fake phone number "˜1-800-SPANK-ME' (which was pretty edgy back in the day).
When a concerned grandmother called the "˜fake number', however, she was put through to a very real phone sex line.
Disney eventually removed the line from the film in 1997 after a barrage of complaints and a mountain of huge phone bills (presumably). They also bought the phone number and shut it down, before you get any ideas.
Jim Carrey learnt torture resistance techniques to play the Grinch
Some scrooges would claim that watching Jim Carrey's The Grinch is like torture (not us, obviously). For poor Jim, though, the film literally was torture.
According to reports, it took around 8 hours to apply his make-up and latex suit. Once in it, Carrey felt so uncomfortable that he eventually had to get counselling from a Navy SEAL, who provided him with the kind of endurance training reserved for people at risk of being kidnapped by the enemy.
Billy Bob Thornton is actually drunk in Bad Santa
Billy Bob Thornton is a renowned method actor, so it's no surprise that he immersed himself into the role of Willie Soke by getting really, really drunk.
It might explain why it has the most profanities of any Christmas movie, racking up 286 swear words and landing Billy Bob and co firmly on Santa's naughty list.
All of the films in the post, as well as plenty more Christmas DVDs and Blu-Rays, are available right now from the musicMagpie Store. Prices start from just £1.19 and you'll get FREE delivery on all orders too!
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