I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday

The bomb shelter was filmed in a basement, and its door was constructed from an old mattress box spring, vinyl window siding, and Styrofoam painted silver. The door's valve wheel was created from a PlayStation racing wheel with plastic bottle caps attached to it, to mimic the appearance of large bolts.

This film was adapted from director/writer Mike Lombardo's short story of the same name from the book "A Very StrangeHouse Christmas" (2013). According to Mike, he wrote the story at a time when things in his personal life were dark; notably, his mother was hospitalized for kidney failure, which is why the story's protagonist is a mother trying to shield someone she cares about from the reality of the situation. Mike also chose Christmas as a backdrop for the story because he wanted to explore the loss of the magic and innocence of childhood.

The film's production spanned over a three-year period. Mike Lombardo began pre-production in 2014, and shot the film on weekends throughout 2015 and 2016. Several pickup shots were filmed in 2017 during post production and the final film was completed and premiered on the film festival circuit in October of 2017.

The labels for the food cans and weed killer were designed by graphic artist and Reel Splatter alumnus Julius von Brunk: at the time, Julius was employed as a graphic designer for consumer goods, and used his job skills to create realistic prop labels in the film. Many of the subtle gags on the labels contain references to other horror films and authors. The chili can contains several references to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), while the fruit cans pay homage to the late horror author Jesus F. Gonzalez. Julius also included names of ex-girlfriends as fictional weeds on the back of the bottle of weed killer.

The portrait studio sequence was filmed in Mike Lombardo's living room. The portraits on the wall were real family and school photos of various cast and crew members.