The movie is set in Three Oaks, Michigan, where town exteriors were filmed. Filming also occurred at the Old Republic House in New Carlisle, Indiana, La Porte, Indiana, and at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, Illinois.

The real name of the reindeer who played Prancer was Boo.

The poster for this movie appears in The Dog (1991).

The film was originally going to be produced by Dino De Laurentiis, but the rights ended up with his daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis, who agreed to make the film for Cineplex Odeon.

The reindeer used for Prancer was a pregnant female. Pregnant reindeer keep their antlers for longer, and she was needed so she wouldn't shed before filming was over.

Continuity

In the final scene, the bells around Prancer's neck disappear and reappear between shots several times.

During the conversation about the existence of Santa and God, Carol eats Jessica's pickle. When Jessica gets up to leave, it has returned.

During the hand slapping between Dr. Benton and Jessica, the former's gloves disappear then reappear on his hands.

Jessica and Carol stand atop a sledding hill and proclaim "We're the first ones!" As they start down the hill the camera angle changes and you can clearly see multiple sled trails.

While Steve and Jessica are at church with Aunt Sarah, John's at home reading the paper. We see Prancer walk past one window behind him and then one on the other side of the room. It starts to snow but at different times, there's snow falling outside one window but then no snow and sunnier outside the other.



Revealing mistakes

The reindeer playing Prancer is clearly female, even though she is referred to as "he" in the film. Both male and female reindeer have antlers, though a female's are smaller and daintier than a male's.

(at around 30 mins) When Jessica is telling her story about the play to John while he's trimming apple trees, there is a shot of her with an apple in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It is not attached to the tree by the stem; it's clearly tied to the branch.

The scene is set in a snowy, cold down in the late fall/early winter. Yet breath from the cold can never be seen emerging from the characters.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When enticing Prancer across the pond, Jessica can be seen saying "come on" twice, but it can be heard only once.

When Jessica is enticing Prancer out of the barn with a cookie, she can be seen saying "Let's go, come on" but you hear "Come on, it's a Christmas cookie".



Crew or equipment visible

When Prancer is crossing the pond about 32 minutes into the movie, a crew member can clearly be seen in the background during the shot.



Character error

When singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", the congregation sings "with angelic hearts proclaim" but the lyrics are "with angelic host proclaim".

John is trimming apple trees before Christmas. That is done between February and April.

From the "non-splintery" broken edges of the smashed deer-statue, it is clear that the statues are plastic, yet Carol states that they are made of wood.