Cozy Up With This Quiz on Classic Holiday Movies

In “Home Alone,” Harry and Marv are robbers in the Chicago suburbs. While Harry is solely focused on getting rich, Marv wants to create a brand. Because they flood the houses they rob, Marv dubs the duo “The Wet Bandits.”

When the Grinch tries to steal Christmas, he dresses himself like Santa, and his loyal dog Max like a reindeer. They rob all the gifts from Whoville, only to find out that presents aren’t what Christmas is all about.

Bill Murray is known for his improvisational skills. The creators of 1988’s “Scrooged” said that he ad-libbed about half of his lines in the film, which made directing him challenging. The film brought Murray back to the big screen after he took a break from Hollywood for a few years.

The producers of “Home Alone” originally planned to use a fake tarantula for the scene in which Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) thwarts the would-be robbers with the creepy crawler. Instead, they used Barry. Actor Daniel Stern didn’t hold back when he screamed as Barry crawled across his face. The good news? Barry didn’t have ears.

A more recent Christmas classic, 2004’s “The Polar Express” follows a young boy as he learns to believe in Santa Claus. Though at first he can’t hear Santa’s sleigh bells, he learns what it means to believe and hears the chime for the first time after the Polar Express reaches the North Pole.

The movie that young Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin) uses to mimic the sound of gunfire looks authentic enough to be a real noir classic, but "Angels With Filthy Souls" was made specifically for 1990's "Home Alone." The cinematographer used special film and shot with extra bright lights to replicate the look of the 1938 flick that inspired it, "Angels With Dirty Faces."

“It’s a Wonderful Life” didn’t become a Christmas staple until at least the 1970s, despite its 1946 release. The film had some steep competition that year, and the $3.7 million budget made it hard for the producers to earn it back. The film only brought in about $3.3 million, but it rose to popularity later because the copyright holder forgot to renew the rights, and TV stations everywhere played it without having to pay royalties.

In Dr. Seuss’ book, the Grinch was drawn in black and white. But when Chuck Jones was making the original animated film, he changed the Grinch to green, modeling the hue after the not-so-appealing color of the car he rented to go talk about the film with Dr. Seuss. It added a vibrance to the film and went with the Grinch’s image, described in his song as a “nasty, wasty skunk” with “all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile.”

He has achieved more fame with his role as Leonard in “The Big Bang Theory,” but 1989 was still a pretty big year for the teenage Johnny Galecki. He starred in both “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Prancer,” the only two Christmas movies released that year.

One of the most heartrending scenes in the popular holiday romance film “Love Actually” (2003) is when Karen (Emma Thompson) receives an unwanted Christmas present from her husband Harry (Alan Rickman). Instead of the necklace she discovered earlier in his coat pocket, Karen receives a Joni Mitchell CD. She realizes the necklace was meant for someone else, and that everything in her life has changed forever.

Before 1946's "It's a Wonderful Life," snowy sets were created by painting corn flakes white, causing crunchy problems for the sound recording. For the fictional Bedford Falls, the special effects crew created a (silent) mixture of foamite, soap flakes, sugar, and water, revolutionizing fake snow for years to come. The movie even won a technical award for its snow.

Though Ralphie’s dad is featured heavily in 1983’s “A Christmas Story,” we never find out his name, only knowing him as “The Old Man.” To be fair, we don’t find out his mother’s name either, in keeping with a true child’s perspective.

Aluminum Christmas trees didn’t have a long stint in the U.S., thanks to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” In the 1965 special, Charlie Brown refused to get a fake Christmas tree, even if it meant opting for a nearly needleless sapling that bowed beneath a single ornament. People followed suit after watching it, and the trendy trees soon fell out of style.

Edmund Gwenn, who played Santa in “Miracle on 34th Street,” rode in the actual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1946. “It was a mad scramble to get all the shots we needed, and we got to do each scene only once. It was bitterly cold that day, and Edmund and I envied Natalie and John Payne, who were watching the parade from a window,” star Maureen O’Hara wrote in her autobiography.

Do you prefer the Muppets or Bill Murray’s version? There have been so many iterations of the classic Charles Dickens story “A Christmas Carol” that it’s hard to pick a favorite. Some renditions stick closely to the original tale, while others retain the themes, but not the exact same characters or setting.

Four years after winning Olympic gold in gymnastics, Mary Lou Retton overcame the odds again as Tiny Tim, a sickly child who not only survives, but does so with a backflip in 1988’s “Scrooged.”

Clark Griswold is so sure he’ll receive a big Christmas bonus that makes an advance payment on an in-ground swimming pool. When all he gets is a “Jelly of the Month” membership, he’s more than a little upset.

Lyricist Hugh Martin originally penned “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” as a much sadder song, but (thankfully) met resistance from “Meet Me in St. Louis” star Judy Garland. She claimed that if she performed the song as written, it would upset the 7-year-old actress playing “Tootie.” The lyrics were lightened and the 1944 holiday classic was born.

Before it became a legendary part of the Rankin/Bass holiday film portfolio, “Frosty the Snowman” was a song. After the success of Gene Autry’s 1949 single “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” songwriters Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson penned “Frosty the Snowman” in 1950.

In “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge is transported by the Ghost of Christmas Past to a happier time when he was mentored by the jolly Mr. Fezziwig as a young man. In the Muppets’ 1992 adaptation, Michael Caine’s grumpy Scrooge is mentored by Fozziwig, naturally portrayed by Fozzie Bear.

When Ralphie isn’t obsessing over a Red Ryder BB gun, he’s busy uncovering a mystery message from the radio with his “Little Orphan Annie” decoder pin. The message? “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.” As Ralphie puts it, “a crummy commercial?!”

Although director Frank Capra never confirmed it, many believe Bedford Falls was based on the real city of Seneca Falls in upstate New York. Capra actually took a trip to the town while writing the script for the 1946 film, which was based on Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift."

Whether "Die Hard" qualifies as a Christmas movie is the subject of much debate, but numbers don't lie: DISH network reported that the 1988 action flick was the 10th-most-watched movie on Christmas Eve in 2016, ahead of perennial classics such as "Home Alone" and "Miracle on 34th Street." Although the movie itself isn't particularly festive, it does take place during a holiday office party in the building where John McClane's (Bruce Willis) estranged wife works.

Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is a jaded rock star who sells out to record a Christmas song he hates. A holiday-themed cover of “Love Is All Around” by the Troggs, “Christmas Is All Around '' becomes an unlikely hit.

When a Macy's Santa claims to be the real Kris Kringle, he faces a court hearing to determine whether he should be locked away. Just when all hope seems lost, a dozen or so postal workers arrive at the courthouse with several large bags of letters to Santa. Kris' lawyer, Fred, argues that if the U.S. Postal Service considers Kris to be Santa, he must be the real deal.

In 1993’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon/Danny Elfman) is the king of Halloween Town, but his life changes when he tries to take over nearby Christmas Town.

Made using a groundbreaking stop-motion animation technique, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was a massive hit when it debuted on NBC in 1964. It has re-aired every December since then, making it the longest continuously running Christmas special in history.

Irving Berlin created the music for the 1954 classic “White Christmas,” including the titular song, though it wasn’t the first time the tune had made it into a movie. It was previously sung in a different holiday film, 1942’s “Holiday Inn.” Not one for false modesty, Berlin claimed, “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote."

Clarence Odbody (played by Henry Travers) is a guardian angel, second class, and he doesn't yet have his wings. Right as George Bailey (James Stewart) is about to end his life by jumping off of a bridge, Clarence beats him to the punch, jumping in before him. Ever the good samaritan, George saves Clarence, who ends up taking him on a journey he won't soon forget.

In Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel “A Christmas Carol,” four spirits visit grumpy Ebenezer Scrooge the night before Christmas. First is his former business partner, Jacob Marley, to warn Scrooge of how the night is going to unfold. Then, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come visit in an effort to help Scrooge understand the true meaning of the holiday and make him a kinder man. Bob Cratchit, meanwhile, is Scrooge’s mistreated clerk in the story.