The Best Bloopers and Goofs from Classic Christmas Movies

Christmas movies are a great holiday tradition, but if you're on your umpteenth viewing of It's a Wonderful Life, you can make things a little more interesting by looking for hidden bloopers and goofs in the movie. See if you can spot these bloopers and goofs from classic Christmas movies.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Barbara Stanwyck starred in this classic holiday movie about a newspaper reporter who pretends to be a happily married but is actually single, which causes problems for her when a war hero is sent to her house to spend Christmas with her "family'. In one scene in this movie, Stanwyck's character, Elizabeth Lane, is making pancakes and she flips one up onto the ceiling, where it drips with batter. But the next shot of her pancake scene shows a completely clean ceiling. Guess Merry Maids swooped in between shots!

It's a Wonderful Life (1946). In one of this classic movie's early scenes, young Harry Bailey (played by Todd Kearns) falls through the ice at the skating pond. Joseph the Angel states that Harry Bailey "fell through the ice at the age of 9" and that he would have died if his brother George hadn't saved him. Later, after George is shown what life would have been like if he had never been born, he comes upon Harry's grave, The tombstone says "Harry Bailey 1911-1919", which means Harry would have only been 8 years old when he died.

Another notorious blooper from It's a Wonderful Life was actually left in the movie because it fit in so well. During the party scene for Harry Bailey and Ruth Dakin Bailey's homecoming, there's a scenewhere a drunken Uncle Billywalks off the screen and you hear a loud crash. Uncle Billy then screams "I'm alright, I'm alright!" George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) looks over in surprise, smiles and laughs. Apparently Thomas Mitchell, who played Uncle Billy, walked into some set equipment and knocked it over, resulting in a loud crash. But his goof fit in perfectly with his drunken scene- it sounded like trashcans being knocked over, so producer Frank Capra left the blunder in the film.

Finally, a very noticeable goof from It's a Wonderful Life is the "disappearing wreath" scene. In the scene where George Bailey stops at The Building and Loan on Christmas Eve, he is carrying a Christmas wreath on his arm. Throughout the scene when he is on the phone, the wreath is on his arm in some shots and it's missing in other shots.

A Christmas Carol (1951). One of the most remade Christmas movies of all time, the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim as Scrooge is still the best. One big blunder though. Near the end of the movie, when Scrooge looks at himself in the mirror, several members of the movie's camera crew are clearly visible in the mirror as well.

A Christmas Story (1983). This movie, which was set in the 1940's, contains a few modern day errors. 1980's cars can be seen in some of the street shots, while modern day logos can be seen on some of the toys in the movie's fictional toy shop. And according to IMDB.com, if you look closely in the class room scenes, one of the boys in the class is wearing a 1980's style "Dukes of Hazzard" watch.

Actress Melinda Dillon, who played Ralphie Parker's mom in this hilarious movie, is involved in a couple of bloopers in the film. In the scene where Mrs. Parker "accidentally" breaks her husband's hideous leg lamp, she holds the broken leg in her arms and it's in three distinctly broken pieces. After Mr. Parker (Darren McGavin's character) screams "What broke?" Dillon is shown holding one single, vertically broken piece. Also, Melinda Dillon's name is misspelled "Dillion" in the ending credits of the movie. Talk about not giving credit where credit is due!

Miracle on 34^th Street (1994). In this remake of the classic 1947 movie, the Thanksgiving parade scene contains a major goof. If you look closely, the trees in the scene have spring buds on them, because the scene was actually shot in New York's Central Park in April.

Love Actually (2003). This romantic comedy may be a modern day holiday favorite, but it's filled with minor errors and goofs. The most noticeable blunder is during the scene where Hugh Grant's character goes to No. 10 Downing Street. If you watch the scene carefully, Grant's tie changes eleven different times in the scene. But this was a semi-intentional goof. No one on the set noticed Grant's first tie change, so the producers decided to do nine more tie changes just to see if anyone noticed. They did.

Sources:
Imdb.com
Wikipedia