To cheer up Santa (Charles Durning) during the absence of Mrs. Claus (Dame Angela Lansbury) the elves come in playing "We Need a Little Christmas". This song was first sung by Lansbury during the Broadway musical of "Mame". The music for "Mame" was written by Musical Supervisor and Lyricist Jerry Herman, who wrote the music for this movie.
Establishing the 1910 to 1912 era was a major decision for the costuming, because Director Terry Hughes had also suggested the 1919 to 1920s to establish the period musical. The '20s meant the Flapper period in costuming. Costume Designer Bob Mackie determined the "teens" was a better period "skirt look" than the '20s shorter hemline, which would effect Dame Angela Lansbury's appearance, hair and wardrobe. Bob Mackie's Christmas green and red costume color palette dramatically determined the set's color range. Production Designer Hub Braden was confronted with the Universal Studios New York backlot exteriors' color condition. The previous movie company using the New York street had painted all of the exteriors in fresh coats of "city slicker contemporary" whites, grays, bright paint colors. New York City research for 1910 established "a look for" the New York City streets' building façades awash with a coal dust dirty patina. Specific building façades/exteriors chosen were repainted with variations of warm values either in muted rose or mistletoe green shades, alternating with beige and the color of "reindeer tan" shades. Iron fire escapes added to the exterior buildings for cast members to be elevated above the street level for the production value in the musical street choreographed marches and dancing patterns. Establishing a conglomeration of Irish, Italian, and Jewish neighborhood celebrating the holiday spirit, strings of bare bulbs were strung across the streets. With period street lamps, to justify a source light for all of the night filming. 1910 dictated horse drawn wagons, carts, and carriages instead of vintage motorized vehicles. The December snow required more selected areas for set dressing effects, which included watered down streets from melting snow... allowing planes of water pools reflecting for camera angles. Rehearsing the group marchers for the women's suffrage liberation issues were scheduled for morning activities, with summer morning temperatures near mid ninety to one hundred degrees. Progressive filming of the street sequences required much patience for cast, crowd and dance extras, animals, crew, and production personnel. Scheduling the day and night street filming became a critical lighting factor because of temperature, the sun and shadow path angles reflected for the point-of-view shooting direction for the multiple - main camera, for second, and third camera positions.
Prior to pre-production, Musical Supervisor and Lyricist Jerry Herman invited the production's cast and department heads to his house in Bel Air for an informal evening gathering. Costume Designer Bob Mackie had his costume sketches with him. Jerry used Bob's sketches for his and Dame Angela Lansbury's initial presentation "Mrs. Santa Claus" for their CBS Christmas project. Jerry's enthusiasm in showcasing his music established an energetic creative rapport. Following this gathering of their creative team, Jerry Herman's presence attending every meeting, being present at cast and dance rehearsals, (conducted at the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio, two miles from Universal City Studios); Jerry's interest, his attention during the filming day and night schedule, established a creative energy with each individual's participation. Every individual involved had a spark of energy to accomplish his or her best effort in performing his or her job in the filming of this production. The crew asked for Jerry's cameo appearance performing on an upright piano. Director Terry Hughes put the postcard shot into the musical sequence.
A plot point in this movie was women demanding the right to vote. Women gaining the right to vote finally happened after the 19th Amendment was ratified eight to ten years after the events in this movie took place.
Bluescreen filming Mrs. Santa Claus in the red sleigh being pulled by a herd of reindeer was filmed first on an independent effects stage located in Van Nuys, California. The stage had high cove sides and rear wall, with a deep floor area to move the sleigh (a rental from Disney Studios Property), and reindeer pack around the stage. The cove walls and floor were painted with Roscoe's specific blue effects paint, at a whopping seventy-five dollars a gallon, which had been specified by Director of Photography Stephen M. Katz, and his gaffer had their electric crew hang rented overhead lighting equipment for the three day filming schedule. At midnight, looking at dailies, the gaffer had rented light instruments that had a warm red lighting effect which created a major problem with the red costume, the red sleigh, and all of the effects editing/overlay screen work to follow. The "red-warm light" turned the chroma-blue a shade of purple. Early the following morning, new "cool light" fixtures replaced all of the overhead lighting and the first days work was re-filmed. After the third day, the company moved to Universal Studios for filming the New York backlot street exterior scenes in the middle of July 1996.