You’ll shoot your eye out!

“Tis the holiday season and that means A Christmas Story will be flashing it’s leg lamp soon! Ralphie’s infamous Red Ryder BB gun arrived in 1938 and remains available today. And so does the annual television retelling of the hilarious classic film, A Christmas Story. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. And even better, since 1997, a marathon of the film titled “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” has aired annually on TNT and/or TBS, comprising twelve consecutive airings of the film on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each year. And my family is glued to the TV for most of the 24 hours. What about yours?

The movie has been described as a nostalgic, and wryly realistic tale of a family’s typical Christmas story in small-town America. You can never get enough of these scenes can you? But what’s the story behind A Christmas Story? I will tell you more, below.

Learn more about this Christmas favorite…

Although he had a writing and radio career that spanned decades, Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. is known for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted, based on his own semi-autobiographical stories. The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story were previously published in Mr. Shepherd’s larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and I highly recommend them to you.

My stomping grounds of Northeast Ohio played a part in the movie:

• The parade scene, was filmed just outside Higbee’s on Public Square in downtown Cleveland at 3 AM. The parade was filmed at night because during the daytime other buildings were visible.
• Ralphie and Randy’s visit to see Santa,was filmed inside Higbee’s. The store kept the Santa slide that was made for the film and used it for several years after the film’s release.

Higbees is no longer a department store and much of Public Square in Cleveland has been transformed. But A Christmas Story still goes on!

In my third book of my Charli series, I wrote about how much Charli and her family enjoyed the A Christmas Story Marathon each year. I described how the McAntic family would settle in and watch show after show on Christmas Day. My editor was quick to comment that she believed I had erred in implying that they watched more than one show. “No one would watch multiple shows on the same day.” Oh yes they/we would! Ralphie dreaming about the bb gun, and groaning about Ovaltine, and wearing the bunny pajamas,  the Bumpus dogs eating Christmas dinner, “Fra-gee lay”, and Randy under the sink- TNT could broadcast it every day!

What are your favorite scenes? Do you watch the A Christmas Story marathon every year?