Tony Elvin

Dec 11, 20223 min read

Elf with Cocktails

Thank you so much to everyone that joined us for Elf with Cocktails on Sunday, you guys were amazing!!

As promised, these are the cocktail recipes we used, so you can recreate them at home, the trivia shared and a few snaps from the night.

The Cocktails

Festive Spritz

25 ml Aperol

25 ml Prosecco

12.5 ml Cinnamon Syrup

12.5 ml Cranberry Juice

12.5 ml soda

Combine the Aperol, Cranberry Juice and Cinnamon Syrup in the wine glass, add ice, a slice of orange and top up with the Prosecco and Soda.

World's Best Coffee Martini

35 ml Espresso

25 ml Jack Daniels

8.75 ml Kahlua

14 ml Ginger Syrup

Shake everything vigorously over ice and serve in a martini glass topped with topped with a light dusting of ground Cinnamon

Maple Applejack

40 ml Calvados

16 ml Fresh Orange Juice

12 ml Maple Syrup

12 ml Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Shake everything vigorously over ice and serve in a tumbler over ice with an apple slice.

Candy Cane Heaven

25 ml Creme de Menthe

25 ml Creme de Cacao

25 ml Single Cream

Shaken vigorously over ice and served in a coupe glass or even an Elf cup!

Elftastic Trivia

Jim Carrey was originally cast to play Buddy but turned it down after the huge success of Ace Ventura

This was Will Ferell's first leading movie role

Will suffered terrible headaches throughout and struggled to sleep from so much sugar.

Will Ferrell actually sat on a throne of lies himself, once playing Santa at a mall in Pasadena.

He also turned down $29 million dollars for Elf 2 in 2013 – didn’t want to turn down the money but wanted the movie to come from an honest place and he didn’t think it would be a good movie.

Will Ferrell walking through Lincoln Tunnel caused several minor traffic accidents where people were so surprised to see the giant Elf.

All of the steeet scenes were filmed on the last day of filming, no extras, just pedestrians who were paid to appear.

There are NOT that many buttons in the Empire State Building Lift ☹

Mary Steenburg, who plays Buddy’s stepmum also plays Will Ferrell’s mum in Stepbrothers.

Forced perspective was used to make it look like Buddy was a giant. The director was against CGI and wanted to keep the movie as natural as possible

The 'throne of lies' scene had to be shot in one take. The set was too extensive to rebuild for another shot.

The cotton balls Buddy eats while in the doctor's office were actually candy floss.

Buddy's 12-second burp was voiced by someone else; a guy called Maurice LaMarche .. mine was real obviously

Will Ferrell's reactions to the jack in the boxes were genuine.

The scene when Buddy eats different candies and pastries with the spaghetti noodles had to be shot twice, because Will Ferrell vomited the first time.

Buddy’s little brother Michael is supposed to play deadpan and think Buddy is weird but he can’t help but smile twice and was trying so hard not to completely lose it.

The design for Santa's Workshop as well as the elf uniforms come from the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They were able to copy lots of bits from the movie because it wasn’t properly copyrighted, using the wrong roman numerals in the copyright notice .. cheeky!

The apartment in which Buddy's dad lives is the same apartment building (exterior shot) in which Dana Barrett lived in Ghostbusters (1984).

Most of shots with Will Ferrell and Ed Asner in the workshop with the elves are forced perspective rather than CGI – two different sized sets.

Papa Elf, actor Bob Newhart predicted perennial movie

Faverau was worried about what they would get when hiring such a serious actor in James Caan but loved the way he underplayed each scene

Caan approached Ferrell at the movie’s premier to confess that he thought he played his part way too over the top .. until he saw the finished movie, he congratulated Ferrell on his energy and performance.

All of the Elves apart from Buddy and Pappa are a combination of two words, Ming Ming, Choo Choo etc.

When Buddy is on the bridge, thinking the unthinkable, this is a homage to George Bailey in 'It’s a Wonderful Life'

Never forget 'The Code of Elves'

1. treat every day like christmas

2. there's room for everyone on the nice list

3. The best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear