Continuity mistake: In the scene when John Ritter is trying to fire Santa and the elf, there is a cup with candy canes on the edge of his desk. The number of candy canes change with each shot. (00:32:20 - 00:34:10)
Continuity mistake: When Willie is shot in the back by police, his feet land about midway between the two short brick pillars/columns (walkway to the kid's house). After neighbor kids are shown screaming and the camera returns to Willie, his feet are before the first pillar - several feet behind his landing spot. (01:23:45)
Continuity mistake: The sidewalk to the front door of the kid's house has three (or more) tiers - one step up at a time followed by a landing of several feet, etc. After police shoot Willie in the back and approach him, the sidewalk to the steps before the front door is flat. (01:24:23 - 01:26:40)
Continuity mistake: When Willie is in bed and the kid comes in with the Christmas countdown candy box he gets in bed with Willie. Willie's robe keeps changing from being open to being closed.
Continuity mistake: When John Ritter threatens to fire Billy Bob Thornton, and Billy thinks he's talking about the midget, it appears as though he shaved. However, in the next scene, where he is flirting with the young girl at the pinball machine, he isn't shaved.
Continuity mistake: When Bob goes into Gin's office the first time, Gin picks up an orange and starts peeling it with both hands. However, in a shot from behind, you can see one of Gin's hands holding a cigarette.
Continuity mistake: The second time John Ritter is complaining to Bernie Mac, he is wearing a navy tie with his beige suit. Later in the same scene his tie has suddenly become green, as it was the first time he complained.
Continuity mistake: One night after work, when Willie in his Santa suit and Marcus in his elf outfit are having their usual bickering in the parking lot outside the department store, there are two pedestrians walking on the other side of the street behind the elf with one person bringing a cell phone to his ear; when the shot switches back to the elf after Willie the (bad) Santa delivers his lines, the same two people can be seen tracing their same steps behind Marcus, this time with the phone back to the ear again.
Continuity mistake: When Billy Bob Thornton comes back to his new job one day in a drunken stupor as usual, he slumps in his Santa seat half unconscious, with the shot from behind the chair showing Willie almost out of his Santa suit, fully exposing his white t-shirt underwear down past the shoulders. In the next shot from the front, with Bernie Mac towering over next to him and getting ready to carry him away while still talking to Marcus the elf, Willie is now fully covered in his red coat, messy as it may be.
Factual error: During the first mall robbery, when Marcus is sliding down the middle of the escalator, both sides of it are running. They would have been turned off as the mall was closed.
Continuity mistake: When Billy Bob Thornton gets woken up by his alarm clock, note the bottles behind the alarm clock. The labels are facing forward. Cut to the close of of Billy Bob's hand hitting the clock, and the labels are facing to the left. When it cuts to full screen again, the labels are facing forward. This happens several times.
Continuity mistake: When Willie goes to the motel that he is staying at, Opal, one of his many conquests, is sitting outside on a bench taking off her wig and shoes. In the next shot when Willie calls to her, she is seen taking off her wig and shoes again.
Audio problem: When Willie listens to his messages, the sound of a tape rewinding can be heard although it's a digital answering machine.
Visible crew/equipment: When Willie is walking past the cars, trying the keys, there is a black car in which stage lights can be seen. It is not the sun because of the angle they are at.
Continuity mistake: After Bernie Mac catches the kid stealing video games, he knocks the kid's ball cap off his head. When the kid is leaving, there's a quick shot of him walking in front of Bernie with his hat still on. In the next shot, it's gone again.
Continuity mistake: The annoying kid gets a black eye from the skater kids. In the following scene with him boxing the midget, he no longer has a black eye. And in a few scenes later, he has the black eye again.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bernie Mac is going to take Willie to his car, Marcus says something to him and Bernie drops Willie. When he drops Willie he is on his back and close to the Santa chair. Bernie and Marcus begin to argue and after the argument there is a wide shot. Willie is now laying on his stomach further away from the chair.
Continuity mistake: When the kid is sitting on Willy's lap and is holding an ice cream cone, the cone changes from several scoops to a melting cone in the wide shot. It did not have enough time to melt that much.
Continuity mistake: The first time John Ritter is complaining to Bernie Mac, his tie is blue, there is one walkie talkie and just a pack of cigarettes. It cuts to Bernie and then back to John who now has on a green tie, there are 2 walkie talkies and 3 oranges.
Continuity mistake: When Billy Bob Thornton is awakened in bed by his alarm clock, the clock reads 11:15. While he is hitting the alarm trying to switch it off, he presses the 'Alarm-Set' button, and 12:00 (the default time on most clocks) flashes on, showing that the alarm wasn't set.
Answer: The wooden pickle was a gift he made for Willie. Thurman didn't confuse "wooden nickle" with wooden pickle.