Pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas is certainly a holiday special of our time. After all, the Netflix special features sketches about “ghosting” internet dates and Santa’s open relationship. But the show’s musical moments, which make up the bulk of its 50-minute runtime, feature set design that embraces Christmas nostalgia.
When production designer Jason Sherwood joined the project, he had a mere month to turn Carpenter’s vision into a fully functional set, ready for taping in front of a live audience. There wasn’t even a script yet; all he had were a list of references. From Andy Williams to Judy Garland, Carpenter’s team was inspired by those vintage specials of yesteryear. That motivated Sherwood’s design mission to be “both classic and contemporary,” he says.
Where old-school Christmas features operated like one-night cabarets, their new-age counterparts are more artificial. They feature dazzling sets and camera work, but operate more like a collection of music videos than any narrative story. A Nonsense Christmas straddles this time gap; its big moments are canned and clippable, but its commitment to an in-studio audience and contained set make it feel more like live theater. Carpenter effortlessly glides through this balance—much of which is thanks to Sherwood’s work.
Rushing the holiday spirit
When Sherwood first met with executive producer Simone Spira, they were only a month out from filming. He immediately clicked with the project—that is, with the title and pitch deck, which was all producers had pulled together at the time. So he set an ultimatum: “I basically said to her, ‘I would love to do this, I know I’m the right person for this project, but you have to hire me by the end of the week,’” he explains. Spira offered him the job an hour later.
On an accelerated schedule, the team quickly pulled together a vision for the special. They referenced their favorite pieces of holiday nostalgia, including Busby Berkeley, Andy Williams, and White Christmas. Sherwood funneled these touchstones into his two biggest set pieces, which were thought up in those initial meetings: A towering multitier stage and a retro, three-walled house.
“We’ve got this super-stylized, big performance idea with a band behind and singers and dancers, and then we’ve got this suburban home space that could be anywhere in the United States,” Sherwood says. “Those first two meetings really sort of broke that concept for us and cracked it open.”
Much was left on the cutting-room floor in these initial meetings. Sherwood proposed some more Christmas-forward set pieces, like a giant ornament or tree. Still, they were hesitant of being too on-the-nose; a normal-size tree on the home set would ultimately suffice.
Making ‘A Nonsense Christmas’ an homage to classic specials
One element of the special that contributes its vintage feel is its live audience. Building sets to accommodate an audience is Sherwood’s home terrain—he’s designed the Oscars, Fox’s Rent: Live, and tours for Sam Smith and the Spice Girls. “The presence of the audience and getting their reactions was a key component that we weren’t going to let go of,” he says.
A Nonsense Christmas opens with a bright red wedding cake–style tiered stage. Carpenter is perched on top in a pink gown, modeled on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But the original idea actually had a different reference. Sherwood was inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2, posing in a pyramid-shaped Christmas tree dress with a star on her head. The stage would be the tree; Carpenter would be the star. He designed that piece in just 10 days.
Most of the special takes place inside Carpenter’s Christmas house, a classic sitcom set. Much of the home was built for functionality: An onstage door ready for Shania Twain as Mrs. Claus, a patterned couch perfect for Christmas day sketches, and a fireplace to burn during Carpenter’s duet with Kali Uchis. But there was also room for play, like in the kitchen, where Sherwood and his team coordinated ornate Jell-O molds (and where Carpenter playfully assembles a Betty Crocker cake). The biggest challenge was perfecting the color palette while using the obvious holiday-season signifiers sparingly.
“How do you evoke Christmas without necessarily ever doing red and green?” Sherwood asks. “These muted pinks, these silver topcanes, bringing in occasionally a lush red, that became part of the color aesthetic of the entire production.”
After the home was curated for that manicured, festive look, they trashed it. The living room, strewn with Solo cups and empty champagne bottles, serves as the backdrop for Carpenter’s performance of “Last Christmas” with Chappell Roan. The duet in a house that looks like a party just cleared out, the song lyrics showing up karaoke-style on a retro television set, is Sherwood’s favorite moment of the special. “We gave it that suburban, post-Christmas party feel,” Sherwood says. “Even when we were shooting, I was like, ‘People are gonna love this.’ ”
The clip of Carpenter and Roan has been shared millions of times across social media platforms, as have other jokes and songs from the special. That’s more than many of the other celebrity holiday specials can say—after all, the Queen of Christmas herself Mariah Carey is now on her third streaming special, each of which makes less noise than the last. Carpenter even jokes about it: “Who does musical comedy holiday specials? A lot of people.” But the unique warmth of this one is due in part to Sherwood’s handiwork.