Goofs

When Howard bumps into Officer Alexander Hummell at the parade, coffee falls on him. But when he gets up to chase Howard, he is completely dry.

While Howard is drinking beer with the reindeer, he sees Jamie's drawing of his family pinned on a wall in the playhouse. Between shots it becomes a completely different drawing.

When Liz is putting the cookies on the cooling rack we see a whole pan. A second later there are only two cookies on the pan.

Dementor's cape disappears and reappears between shots when he is kicked in the crotch.

When Ted is attempting to seduce Liz in the van, her seat belt keeps changing from being fastened to unfastened.

As Howard is leaving his house to find the Turbo Man doll for Jamie, Ted advises him to put chains on his tires. Tire chains are illegal in Minnesota.

The shoulder patches on Officer Hummel's coat say "Twin Cities Police Department." The Twin Cities do not have a consolidated police department. He is either an officer with Minneapolis or St. Paul.

When Howard is almost bitten by the reindeer, it is shown with teeth both the upper and lower jaws. Reindeer do not have upper incisors. They have a hard upper palate the lower teeth work against.

When Ted takes over for Liz baking he says 'I know, sugar cookies, 11-14 minutes until golden brown'. Sugar cookies are a white-yellowish color, the batch Liz takes out of the oven is dark brown like gingerbread, or burnt, and realistically would burn if baked 14 minutes.

At Jamie's karate class he does not kick properly, his fists are not balled-up properly, and he is never well-positioned, so he would realistically not move up a rank.

There are references to radio/TV stations beginning with both "W" and "K" but the Mississippi River flows through the area, and there are stations on both sides.

In the store on Christmas Eve morning, all the customers and salespeople laugh because there are no more Turbo Man dolls and they claim that the last doll went with a lady in a fur coat. But, if you look closely, you can see customers holding Turbo Man dolls and some on the shelves. However, the boxes they're holding say "Turbo Man" on the top to indicate they are associated with the Turbo Man toy-line. Boxes containing Booster and Dementor are in similar boxes, so they could very well be in the boxes held by customers at the toy store.

When Howard first arrives at the Mall of America store for the late Turbo Man dolls, he is going down an escalator. Then, in the next shot, a crowd is shown at a toy store. You can see Howard in the crowd before he even gets there.

Filmed during the summer; during a long shot in the parade scene we can see the tops of two very green trees down a side street.

When Howard is in the pay phone booth at Mickey's Diner, he was supposed to call "555-KQRS." He dials "555" and moves his finger to press the number "8". The letter "K" on a telephone is on the number "5."

When Howard is breaking into Ted's house he uses a credit card to get in. The camera shows a close-up of the lock and door knob from the inside twice; both times we can see the door is not shut properly.

When Howard is fighting the Giant Santa at the Santas' warehouse, after Giant Santa punches Mini Santa off Howard, he punches Giant Santa. When he does this, Giant Santa's face goes in the opposite direction in which the punch was delivered.

When Howard runs into Ted and the reindeer, the reindeer's antlers are still in velvet. Velvet is shed in August, at least four months before the Christmas Eve setting.

"Jingle Bells" by the Brian Setzer Orchestra is heard in the film. The band did not release their recording of that song until 2002, a full six years after the film was released.

When a man jumps in his vehicle, saying a new shipment of Turbo Man dolls has arrived at Toy Works, the camera crew is briefly reflected in the mirror as he shuts the passenger side door.

Mickey's Diner is not in downtown Minneapolis, it's in St. Paul.

Minneapolis does have a winter parade every year during the Christmas season. It's known as the Holidazzle parade, but it is held in the evening, not during the day as shown in the movie.

When Arnold departs from his acerbic neighbor, apparently headed to downtown Minneapolis, the longshot that follows is St. Paul. Then there is a cut to Arnold running frantically through a crowd in downtown Minneapolis.

KQRS Radio is a Twin Cities radio station, but at the time of the film's release, it was in Golden Valley, a Minneapolis suburb, not in downtown Minneapolis as shown.

After Howard accidentally backs into and knocks over the Officer Hummell's motorcycle with the back of his GMC, he collects Howard's license and registration. Later, Howard participates in a bomb stand-off with the police. Hummell would have already known Howard's information and would most likely summon a team of other officers to Howard's house immediately after Howard's previous incidents. Instead, Hummell is shown later, enjoying himself and saluting to spectators at the Wintertainment Parade.

The entire crowd at the first toy store joins in mocking Howard and Myron for thinking they could still get Turbo Man action figures, as though it is a well known fact that Turbo Man figures are long sold out. But they all rushed into the store, which it would not make sense for them to have done unless they were also trying to get the hottest toy, which was Turbo Man.

Myron, Howard, and the other customers are very committed to getting one of the numbered balls tossed by the toy store employees at the Mall of America. Myron even taunts Howard when he gets a ball. However, the balls do not guarantee anyone would get a Turbo Man. The manager stated that the balls were numbered and would be drawn lottery style and the few winners would be able to purchase the toy.

When Howard is getting a phone call from Andrea, the display shows "Andrea/Wherehouse on Line 2" instead of "Warehouse".

At the beginning of the movie, Howard decides to get around the traffic jam to get to Jamie's karate class in time by driving on the highway's shoulder. When he comes home after missing Jamie's karate class, he tells his wife he got a speeding ticket. He would have been cited for driving in the shoulder, not speeding.