It’s been 20 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jingle All the Way brought some holiday cheer into our hearts. In the film, Schwarzenegger stars as Howard, a workaholic who scrambles to get his son the most popular toy on the market for Christmas. Unfortunately, he waits just a tad too late and finds himself into a Black Friday-esque frenzy.
Though Jingle All The Way isn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece, it’s still a holiday delight, with some of Sinbad‘s best one-liners. Here are 5 cheery facts you never knew about the film.
1. The parade in the film took more than three weeks to film.
In the film, Howard dresses as his son’s hero, the action figure, Turbo Man and participates in the 12th Annual Twin Cities Wintertainment Parade. Shot on several blistering hot days over three weeks, the parade consisted of five cameras and 1,500 extras and 10,0poundsnds of red and gold confetti.
2. It was Chris Parnell‘s first film role.
Before his SNL glory days, Chris Parnell starred in Jingle All the Way as the snarky store employee. More recently, Parnell has had roles on both Archer and Drunk History.
3. Toy Story inspired the film.
Jingle All The Way’s producer Chris Columbus spent the year before the film was shot desperately searching for the coveted Buzz Lightyear doll for his kid. In the production company’s notes he wrote, “It’s almost like searching for a Christmas Eve holy grail – and about as easy. I couldn’t find it anywhere. That was when I came to understand the universality of this situation.”
4. The Turbo Man suits had built-in cooling systems.
As mentioned previously, Jingle All The Way was shot during a heat wave which meant those Turbo suits were hot AF! Made out of body mold, wax, and rubber, actors were kept cool because plastic tubing was threaded throughout the suit so that cool water could be streamed through while filming. Sounds super refreshing if you ask us.
5. A man won $19 million dollars (briefly) for claiming that Jingle All The Way was his idea.
In 2001, Brian Webster, a high school science teacher from Detroit won a total of $19 million in damages for copyright infringement after he claimed that 20th Century Fox stole his script, Could This Be Christmas which he had sold to Murray Hill Publications Inc. However, a few years later the judgement was reversed when a judge decided Fox weren’t thieves after all.
