In spirit of the upcoming holiday, here are a few fun facts about the movie Elf  that you probably didn’t know:

Will Ferrell wasn’t the casting director’s original choice–that’s right–Jim Carrey was!

The film took over 10 years to produce because of all of the editing required to help it come together as a finished product.

You may have guessed, but if you didn’t: the cotton balls Buddy eats in the movie are really cotton candy balls.

Will Ferrell was not the burp master behind Buddy’s famous 12-second burp. It’s the actor whose voice you hear as  Brain in the animated series, Pinky and the Brain.

Will Ferrell once was a mall Santa, before he got his big break as an actor and comedian.

Buddy’s surprised expressions in the jack-in-the-box scene were genuine. In the scene, director Jon Favreau used a remote control to make them pop at random times  to get a real expression out of Will Ferrell.

Peter Billingsley, the star of the adored movie A Christmas Story (1983), made a special appearance in the film as an elf.

Two years ago, Will Ferrell turned down the generous offer of $29 million to perform in a sequel to Elf.