The story takes place in 1933. When Helen Brewster is trying to raise money for war bonds, Benedict Slade is still a young man. The first World War started in United States in 1917. That is only 16 years before the main the main story takes place, at which time Slade is an old white-haired man.
In one repossession scene they collect a grandfather clock. But in the previous scene when Slade arrives at the bookstore to repossess items the grandfather clock is already on the truck.
When Thatcher arrives home, he playfully throws his coat over his son's head. The son flops to the ground and Thatcher picks him up and sets him on the couch, leaving the coat on the floor. A moment later, Thatcher leaves the room to talk to his wife in private, and the coat is nowhere to be seen.
When thatcher is speaking to his family near Jonathan's grave, the loop of his glasses' temple piece is sticking out and wrapped around the outside of his ear in some shots but properly tucked behind the ear in others.
Near the end of the film, Slade tells Thatcher's son he's sending him to Australia to a clinic run by "Sister Elizabeth Kenny" (a nurse) to cure his polio caused paralysis. Such a nurse did exist and had developed an effective therapy to cure paralysis. However an American stricken with polio couldn't travel there to visit her. Her methods needed to be employed immediately upon contracting the disease and such a journey would take too much time. American patients were treated by their local doctor or nurse who'd read up extensively on her methods.
The bookshop owner identifies the copy of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in his display case as an original edition. The copy is approximately 6x9", with a red leather copy sporting a white rectangle in which the name and author appear, and is very thin. The original edition of A Christmas Carol was much thicker, with solid red cover featuring the title embossed in gold foil within a wreath design, and was only about 4x6". It also featured gilded edges to the pages, which the prop book here lacks.
Slade makes reference to the original A Christmas Carol novella featuring "ghosts of hell." Hell is never mentioned in A Christmas Carol. Marley and others who were unkind in their lives are instead doomed to walk the Earth for all eternity.
Even a small wood stove would have been made out of cast iron and would have weighed several hundred pounds, too much for an ordinary man to have lifted easily and put into the back of the truck.
While reading from a purported first edition of A Christmas Carol, Slade's recitation contains numerous differences from the actual text. He says, "Darkness is cheap, and he liked it," when the actual book says "Scrooge liked it." He goes on to read, "But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was alright." The actual text says "all was right," not "alright." He then begins skipping large portions of the text, full sentences and paragraphs, to get to the part about Marley's ghost faster.
Though the story is set in Depression-era New Hampshire, most of the characters have noticeable Canadian accents.
Helen announces that the war bond drive is just short of its $25,000 goal, but this amount was far too high. It would be the equivalent of raising $300,000 today.
Slade and the spirits are not supposed to be able to affect the events they are witnessing. When Slade is watching the townsfolk burn his possessions in the future, he bumps into a sign and it moves.
When the lights go out in the warehouse, Slade switches the circuit breaker several times and leaves in the off position. When power is restored later, the lights come back on even with the switch in the off position.
The bookshop keeper tells Slade that the original edition of A Christmas Carol was handed down from his grandfather. As such, it is his personal property, not part of the store's inventory, and can't be repossessed by Slade for liquidation.
Jessup (the Ghost of Christmas Present) tells Slade that if the shadows on the future remain unaltered, by the next Christmas he sees the Thatcher family having dinner and Jonathan Thatcher's chair is empty, with his crutches preserved in the corner. The "present day" of the story is 1933. One year later would be 1934, by which point, according the Jessup, Jonathan will already be dead. When Jonathan's grave is shown, it lists the date of his death as 1935.
After having his epiphany, Slade drives to Thatcher's house with his truck full of all the items he'd repossessed the day before. The truck had been unloaded in his warehouse the previous night. Loading and unloading it was shown to take several able-bodied men. Slade is one old man. He would not have been able to load it all himself.
On Christmas morning, Slade presents Jonathan Thatcher with a bundle of bus, train, and boat tickets that will get him to the clinic in Australia. Since Slade just had his epiphany that evening/morning, there would be no way he could have gotten those tickets. Coordinating the trip and it's multiple legs would have required a travel agent, and at the very least a ticket broker to sell the tickets to him, and those businesses would be closed on Christmas day.
When Mr. Brewster is at the orphanage picking out an apprentice, he settles on young Benedict Slade, reasoning that he'd rather do something for someone who needs, rather than someone who just wants. All of the children there are orphans. They are all just as much in need as Slade.