Bill Robinson visited Shirley Temple at an exclusive and restricted hotel to rehearse the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" number for this film. Temple later recalled, "I asked Bill what cottage he was staying in. He told me, 'I'm staying in the chauffeur quarters above the garage.' It wasn't until years later that I understood why."
The pigtailed hairdo that Shirley Temple wears in the farm scenes made headline news when this film was released.
Gloria Stuart initially turned down this film because she felt that the material was not up to her dramatic acting abilities. Darryl F. Zanuck, however, convinced her to do the film and explained that she would be seen by millions, due to Shirley Temple's popularity. Miss Stuart relented and agreed in a 1998 interview that Zanuck was certainly correct.
The title is taken from a book by Kate Douglas Wiggin, but outside of the character of Aunt Miranda and the plot element of Rebecca coming to live with her aunt, the film has absolutely nothing in common with the book.
Unlike in her earlier film Our Little Girl (1935), in which she played "Oh! Susanna," Shirley Temple did not do her own piano playing in this film.