Ever the metropolitan chameleon, Vancouver has had a part to play in at least one beloved holiday movie and some… lesser holiday classics.
A Christmas Story 2
The perhaps more obscure sequels Vancouver had a hand in creating include the sequel to A Christmas Story released in 2012. A Christmas Story 2 received a whopping 3.3/10 on IMDb and an audience score of 37 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Filming locations included New Westminster for exterior shots of the Parker house, Pacific Central Station - 1150 Station Street, Gastown, Save-On-Meats at 42 Hastings Street West, Riverview Hospital, and Canadian Motion Picture Park Studios in Burnaby.
Home Sweet Home Alone
Next up is the most recent installment of the Home Alone franchise, Home Sweet Home Alone.
Released on Nov. 12 on Disney+ and starring Archie Yates of Jojo Rabbit fame, the movie received 16 per cent on the Tomatometer, a 12 per cent audience score and a 3.6/10 on IMDb. Vancouver was used for a couple of scenes to create a sense of city life, which stood in for Chicago, Illinois according to hitc.com.
Elf
Now onto a real holiday classic, Will Ferrell’s hilarious portrayal of a wayward Santa servant: Elf. Released in 2003, the movie has become a cult classic and has Vancouver to thank for city scenes as well as interiors done at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam. Also, to shoot the beginning scenes of Buddy at the north pole the production team created a soundstage in Vancouver. However, as none were big enough to accommodate the filmmakers' needs they moved into the PNE Agrodome.
More details about how the space was used are included in a 2020 video made by Netflix.
