- The Nutcracker
Every December, productions of The Nutcracker ballet add to the festivities and joy of the holiday season. When The Nutcracker was first performed in Russia in 1892, critics were not impressed and the future did not look bright for this ballet. In fact, it wasn’t until George Balanchine’s production of the ballet in 1954 that the show began to gain popularity. By the late 1960s, The Nutcracker established itself as the essential ballet of the holiday season. Balanchine’s choreography is the version most often performed to this day.
Read more fun facts about this iconic ballet here.
- Love, Actually
Although this movie is a relative newcomer, it has quickly become a fan favourite to the Christmas Movie must watch lists.
The airport footage in this movie was shot using hidden cameras. Footage of passengers being welcomed and embraced by loved ones at Heathrow Airport was shot on location with hidden cameras for a week. In the film’s DVD commentary, writer-director Richard Curtis explains that when something special was caught on camera, a crew member would race out to have its subjects sign a waiver so the moment might be included in Love Actually. This was a fitting production device, as Curtis claims that watching the love expressed at the arrival gate of LAX is what inspired him to write the ensemble romance in the first place.
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- It’s a Wonderful Life
Apparently this movie started with a Christmas Card!
After years of unsuccessfully trying to shop his short story The Greatest Gift to publishers, Philip Van Doren Stern decided to give the gift of words to his closest friends for the holidays when he printed up 200 copies of the story and sent them out as a 21-page Christmas card. David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Pictures, ended up getting a hold of it, and purchased the movie rights for $10,000.
You can read more interesting facts about this movie here.