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You’ve probably heard a lot about Pinterest over the last few months. Not only has the company received $27 million in venture funds, but the site’s popularity has exploded from 1.2 million users in August to over 4 million today. SEE ALSO: Study Shows Pinterest Will Compete with Top 10 Soci…

Far more than a plot device heralding George Bailey’s dark night of the soul in the 1946 holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, softly falling snow is something of a central character in the movie. But the cheap, widely used “fake snow” used back in the day — i.e., often just cornflakes painted white — simply would not do; director Frank Capra wanted believable snow. Here, in previously unpublished photos from the movie set, including marvelous candid shots of the film’s star, Jimmy Stewart (above), LIFE.com documents the use of a revolutionary new snow-making process — a process that, for the first time, allowed filmmakers to produce and control remarkably realistic onscreen snowfall, drifts, flurries, and landscapes. The look and feel of holiday movies would never be the same …