134 Fun Facts About A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story opened in cinemas the week before which 1983 holiday?

Thanksgiving: it opened on November 18, 1983, and had faded from most cinemas within a few weeks, long before home video and television turned it into a holiday fixture.

Who directed the iconic film 'A Christmas Story'?

Bob Clark heard the author tell the flagpole story on his car radio and kept circling the block to hear the end; it took him over a decade, and the box-office clout of Porky's, to get it filmed.

Several of the stories behind A Christmas Story first appeared in the mid-1960s in which magazine?

Playboy published them: founder Hugh Hefner was a fan, and cartoonist Shel Silverstein had long urged the author to write down the tales he had been improvising on late-night radio.

What is the 'major award' that Ralphie's Old Man wins in a newspaper contest?

A leg lamp, shaped like a woman's leg in a fishnet stocking: the Old Man calls it 'indescribably beautiful', and Mother's quiet war on it goes down as 'the legendary battle of the lamp'.

What is the famous warning Ralphie consistently receives about his desired Christmas gift?

'You'll shoot your eye out!' is what his mother says, then his teacher, then a department-store Santa; Ralphie decides his mother must have got to the teacher first.

Which dare gets Flick to press his tongue to the frozen flagpole in A Christmas Story?

A triple dog dare: his friend jumps to it straight from the double dog dare, skipping the plain triple dare, which the narrator calls 'a slight breach of etiquette'.

What kind of dogs do the Parkers' next-door neighbors own, to the Old Man's daily torment?

They are hounds, the pack of smelly hound dogs from next door that torment the Old Man and finally devour the Christmas turkey; the narration counts 'at least 785' of them.

Where does the Parker family go for Christmas dinner after their own turkey is ruined?

A Chinese restaurant, where the waiters serenade the family with a mangled carol and the roast duck arrives whole and, as the Old Man protests, 'smiling at me'.

What brand of soap does Ralphie's mother wash his mouth out with?

Lifebuoy is the bar in his mouth; the narrator, by then 'quite a connoisseur of soap', says he preferred Lux and found Palmolive had 'a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor'.

What Christmas gift from Aunt Clara leaves Ralphie mortified?

A pink bunny suit: Aunt Clara, the narrator says, thought him 'perpetually four years old, but also a girl'; the Old Man calls him 'a pink nightmare', and Mother lets him save it for her visits.

Which cable network launched the '24 Hours of A Christmas Story' marathon in 1997?

TNT launched the round-the-clock run in 1997; after the channel had turned to drama, a sister network took the marathon over in 2004.

When Ralphie finally decodes the radio show's secret message, it turns out to be a commercial for what?

Ovaltine: Ralphie had drunk gallons of it to earn the decoder pin, only for the first secret message to read 'Be sure to drink your Ovaltine', which he writes off as 'a crummy commercial'.

What is the name of the department store where Ralphie and Randy visit Santa?

Higbee's was a real store on Cleveland's Public Square, in Ohio rather than Indiana; the film kept its glowing sign and shot the window, parade and Santa scenes there.

Which of these added A Christmas Story to its ranks in December 2012?

The National Film Registry, the Library of Congress's roll of films to be preserved, took it in 2012, nearly three decades after it had slipped out of cinemas within weeks of opening.

What is the name of Ralphie's school teacher?

Miss Shields, played by Tedde Moore, is Ralphie's teacher; he hopes his Christmas theme will win her over to the Red Ryder cause.

Which storyteller both narrates A Christmas Story as the adult Ralphie and wrote the tales behind it?

Jean Shepherd had spun these tales for years as a late-night radio monologist before he wrote them down, and he narrates the film himself as the grown-up Ralphie.

How does Ralphie finally answer Scut Farkus's bullying?

Ralphie punches him repeatedly while unleashing a stream of vulgar gibberish like the Old Man's; Mrs. Parker breaks it up and, to his relief, downplays it to the Old Man.

How does Mrs. Parker steer the Old Man off the subject of Ralphie's trouble with Scut Farkus?

Talking about football: Mother says only that 'you know how boys are', then turns to Sunday's big game; the narrator says things were different between them from then on.

The fictional town of 'Hohman, Indiana' where the story is set is inspired by what real Indiana city?

Hammond, Indiana, the author's boyhood home, is the model for Hohman; the fictional name comes from Hohman Avenue, a main street in downtown Hammond.

Who has to come and free Flick's tongue from the flagpole?

The fire department frees him; back in class nobody will say who dared him, and the teacher trusts guilt to punish them, though the narrator knew 'it was always better not to get caught'.

What does the Old Man battle in the basement again and again in A Christmas Story?

The furnace: the narrator ranks him among 'the most feared furnace-fighters in northern Indiana', and every bout sends up a storm of swearing heard only as gibberish.

Red Ryder, the cowboy whose name is on Ralphie's dream BB gun, first appeared in which medium?

A newspaper comic strip: Red Ryder rode into the Sunday funnies in 1938, and within two years his name and picture had been licensed for the air rifle Ralphie dreams of.

In the name Ralphie recites by heart, his dream Red Ryder is a carbine-action air rifle of how many shots?

200 shots: asked what he wants, Ralphie blurts out 'an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle' and, the narrator admits, is horrified to hear himself say it.

What happens to Ralphie's glasses on Christmas morning?

They break when a BB ricochets off his target and knocks them off his face; hunting for them, he treads on them himself.

What is the name of Scut Farkus's sidekick?

Grover Dill is, in the narrator's words, 'Farkus' crummy little toady', green teeth and all; the pair corner the boys by the alley on the walk home from school.

Which radio show sends Ralphie the secret decoder pin he has waited weeks for?

Little Orphan Annie: the pin admits him to Annie's 'Secret Circle', but the first message he decodes turns out to be nothing more than an advert for the show's sponsor.

Ralphie suspects the Old Man's cloud of profanity is still hanging over which body of water?

Lake Michigan: the 'tapestry of obscenity' the Old Man wove 'in the heat of battle', having fallen downstairs over a pair of skates, is 'still hanging in space' above it, the narrator says.

The Parker house exteriors were shot in which neighborhood on Cleveland's West Side?

The house stands in Tremont, on Cleveland's near West Side; a fan bought it on eBay in 2004 and restored it as a museum.

The dogs that devour the Parkers' Christmas turkey belong to which neighbors?

The Bumpuses, 'our hillbilly neighbors' to the narrator, own a horde of dogs that, he says, ignored every other human being on earth except the Old Man.

Which 1994 film brought back the Parkers with Kieran Culkin as Ralphie?

My Summer Story kept only one face from the original cast, Tedde Moore as the teacher, and sank at the box office, having reached cinemas under a different title.

What is the name of the actor who played Ralphie Parker?

Peter Billingsley was the first boy the director saw; thinking the choice 'too obvious', he kept auditioning other boys before coming back to him.

After his major award is shattered beyond repair, what does the Old Man do with it?

He buries it in the backyard, next to the garage, alone and at night, after his attempt to glue the pieces back together falls apart.

What is the name of Ralphie's friend who dares Flick to stick his tongue to the pole?

Schwartz issues the dare; later Ralphie blames Schwartz for teaching him the word, and Schwartz's mother can be heard wailing on him over the phone.

A similar mother role in which film won the actress playing Mrs. Parker her part in A Christmas Story?

Close Encounters of the Third Kind had her as a mother whose small son is carried off by aliens, a part that won her an Oscar nomination and, six years on, the role of Ralphie's mother.

What 'cover story' does Ralphie invent about his glasses on Christmas morning?

An icicle fell from the garage roof and hit him in the face, he sobs; Mother believes every word, and Ralphie escapes without a punishment.

Which songwriting duo wrote the score for 'A Christmas Story: The Musical'?

Pasek and Paul made their Broadway debut with this show, which brought them a first Tony nomination; the win came four years later with Dear Evan Hansen.

Which story collection is the main basis of A Christmas Story's screenplay?

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (1966) collected tales the author had first improvised on late-night radio; written down at friends' urging, they became a best-seller.

Which actor played The Old Man, Ralphie's father?

Darren McGavin, TV's monster-hunting reporter Kolchak, had fended for himself as a runaway in his teens; the director later thanked God he had ended up with him as the Old Man.

A Christmas Story is set around 1940, yet which singer's later Christmas recordings play on its soundtrack?

Bing Crosby: several of the records heard in the Parker house date from 1945 or later, anachronisms in a film that never states its year but dresses itself as about 1940.

Which star was considered for the Old Man in A Christmas Story but proved too expensive?

Jack Nicholson was interested, by several accounts, but his fee was beyond so small a film; the director later thanked God he had ended up with the actor he did.

Ralphie's school in A Christmas Story bears the name of which 1920s U.S. president?

Warren G. Harding School was borrowed from life: the author's Indiana hometown had a school of that name, along with a Cleveland Street like the one the Parkers live on.

What is the name of the actress who played Ralphie's Mother?

Melinda Dillon started out checking coats at the Second City comedy theater and earned a Tony nomination on Broadway in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? two decades before this film.

The actor who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story appeared in the two-part finale of which TV series?

The Wonder Years later used the film's device of a grown man narrating his boyhood, and in 1993 it brought the former Ralphie in for its two-part finale.

In which Canadian city were the interiors and some street scenes of A Christmas Story filmed?

Toronto was the director's adopted home: an American who had settled there and made his name in Canadian film, he shot the Parker interiors and the Christmas-tree lot scene in the city.

What is the brand of the famous Red Ryder BB gun?

Daisy began as a windmill maker that gave farmers a free air rifle with each purchase; the giveaway proved more popular than the windmills, and the company switched to guns.

The 2022 sequel 'A Christmas Story Christmas' was released on which streaming service?

HBO Max released it on November 17, 2022: the original Ralphie, now a father himself, takes his family back to Hohman after the Old Man's death to stage a Christmas worthy of him.

On which evening does the annual '24 Hours of A Christmas Story' TV marathon begin?

Christmas Eve at 8 p.m. Eastern: twelve back-to-back showings run until the next evening, a marathon launched in 1997 because the film's popularity had grown year after year.

The actor who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story has a cameo in which 2003 Christmas comedy?

Elf: he plays one of Santa's elves, a rare return to the screen for a former child star who by then worked mostly behind the camera as a producer and director.

What does Ralphie accidentally do while helping his father change a tire?

He drops an F-bomb when the wheel bolts go flying: 'Oh, fudge', the narrator recalls, 'only I didn't say fudge'; asked where he heard the word, he names a friend rather than his father.

Changing a flat tire in A Christmas Story, the Old Man pictures himself in the pits at which race?

The Indianapolis 500: the narrator says he 'loved' a blowout and saw himself in the pits at the Speedway; he calls for a four-minute change and takes twice that.

Where is Ralphie's final present hidden on Christmas morning?

Behind the desk: once the wrapping is cleared, the Old Man points Ralphie to one last package tucked there, the Red Ryder.

Where does the Old Man proudly display his major award?

In the front window, 'right in the middle', where the narrator says it could be seen up and down Cleveland Street; the Old Man goes out into the road to direct its placement.

Where does Ralphie lock himself away to decode the secret radio message?

The bathroom: 'the only room in the house where a boy of nine can sit in privacy and decode', the narrator explains, while Mother calls through the door that Randy has got to go.

Roughly how many boys auditioned to play Ralphie in A Christmas Story?

About 8,000 boys auditioned: the director thought his first choice 'too obvious' and saw the whole field, at home and abroad, before returning to him.

Hoping to win over his teacher, what enormous gift does Ralphie present to her in A Christmas Story?

A fruit basket of comic size: 'a little bribe never hurts', the narrator reflects, yet the theme he hoped it would help still comes back with a grade far below his dreams.

What is the title of the Christmas theme Ralphie writes for class?

'What I Want for Christmas' is the assigned theme; Ralphie fills his with the Red Ryder pitch and daydreams of his teacher swooning over it.

What is Mother doing when the Old Man's major award 'accidentally' breaks?

Watering a plant, she says; the Old Man suspects otherwise and tries in vain to glue his prize back together.

What grade does Ralphie's teacher give his Christmas theme about the air rifle?

The theme comes back marked C+ with a cutting postscript from the teacher, after Ralphie's daydream of her swooning over his prose and calling it sheer poetry.

How does Mrs. Parker finally get Randy to eat his dinner?

By playing "mommy's little piggie" she has Randy snorting face-down in his plate, laughing, where the Old Man's threat to force the food into him had got nowhere.

Which team does the Old Man jokingly refer to as the "Chicago Chipmunks"?

The Bears: he calls them 'the terror of the midway', garbling their real nickname, the Monsters of the Midway, then decides Chipmunks would suit them better.

The Old Man's 'major award' arrives in a crate stamped with which word he mispronounces?

The crate is stamped FRAGILE, which the Old Man sounds out as 'fra-gee-lay' and declares 'must be Italian'.

What dinner does Randy refuse to eat at the Parker table?

'Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf, I hate meatloaf,' Randy chants, until Mother finds another way to get it into him.

The director of A Christmas Story appears in a cameo as which character?

Swede, the neighbor who stops in the street to ask 'What is that?' and is told, with dignity, 'It's a major award'; the director slipped himself into the part uncredited.

What Christmas present does Mother give the Old Man?

A bowling ball: 'From me to you,' says Mother, and the Old Man wonders aloud what it could be before announcing, 'Well, it's a blue ball!' and thanking her.

Which carol do the restaurant waiters sing to the Parkers on Christmas Day?

'Deck the Halls', rendered as 'fa ra ra ra ra' by the waiters before the owner hustles them away from the table.

In Ralphie's self-pitying daydream, what has left him blind?

Soap poisoning: the blind, cane-tapping Ralphie of the daydream returns home to make his weeping parents regret the bar of soap.

What present does Randy unwrap on Christmas morning?

A toy zeppelin is Randy's big present, unwrapped in the Christmas-morning frenzy before the Old Man points Ralphie to one last package.

According to the narrator, what color are Scut Farkus's eyes?

Yellow: 'He had yellow eyes! So help me God, yellow eyes!' the narrator swears; faced with him, Randy just lies there like a slug, which the narrator calls his only defense.

Where does Randy hide when he thinks the Old Man is going to punish Ralphie?

Under the kitchen sink: sobbing that Daddy is going to kill Ralphie, Randy will not come out, so Mother hands him a glass of milk and leaves him to it.

Bundled into his snowsuit for school, what does Randy wail that he cannot do?

Put his arms down: 'I can't put my arms down!' he wails, and Mother, still winding a scarf round his neck, tells him to put them down when he gets to school.

What household item played falling snow when Cleveland's winter gave A Christmas Story's crew none?

Potato flakes fell as snow, and the drifts the boys run through are firefighter's foam, because that Cleveland winter was cold but brought almost no snow of its own.

What does the adult narrator call the duck the family is served at their Christmas dinner out?

'Chinese turkey' is the narrator's name for it: when the roast duck is carried out, the Old Man calls it beautiful, then protests that it is smiling at him.

Which actor played Flick, the boy who licks the flagpole in A Christmas Story?

Scott Schwartz played Flick, who is abandoned mid-dare: when the school bell rings, his friends bolt for class and leave him wailing at the pole.

The scene where Flick's tongue sticks to the flagpole was achieved using what special effect?

A hidden suction tube did the trick: a plastic sleeve slid over the pole had a hole the size of a fingernail, and a small vacuum motor buried in the snow held his tongue there.

In a daydream cut from A Christmas Story, Ralphie's BB gun comes to the aid of which comic-strip hero?

Flash Gordon: the daydream had Ralphie helping him against Ming the Merciless, and though it was cut, both characters still appear in the end credits.

What kind of hat does bully Scut Farkus wear?

A coonskin cap, raccoon tail and all, crowns the bully; it is a little ahead of its time, since the great coonskin craze among boys arrived with Davy Crockett on television in the 1950s.

In the Old Man's prize contest, what is the name of the Lone Ranger's nephew's horse?

Victor: Mother supplies the name offhand ('Everybody knows that'), to the Old Man's astonishment, while he puzzles over the newspaper contest that brings him his major award.

In A Christmas Story's department-store scene, what does Santa use to shove Ralphie back down the exit slide?

His boot: Ralphie freezes on Santa's lap, scrambles back up the slide to correct himself, and gets a black boot in the face for his trouble.

Which outlaw leads the gang Ralphie drives off in his backyard daydream?

Black Bart and his gang storm the Parker yard in Ralphie's daydream, only to be picked off by a chaps-wearing Ralphie with his Red Ryder.

The narrator says the Old Man worked in profanity as other artists work in what?

Oils or clay: 'My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay,' the narrator says, though on screen every tirade comes out as harmless gibberish.

What did the prop man hand the boy playing Ralphie to chew in the bandit daydream?

Chewing tobacco, the real thing rather than the black licorice actors normally chew: the boy turned dizzy, broke into a sweat and felt his lips burn.

Which sitcom star says he learned how to do comedy from A Christmas Story's narrator and author?

Jerry Seinfeld says the storyteller 'formed my entire comedic sensibility': those unscripted late-night radio monologues, like his own sitcom, found their comedy in the smallest incidents of everyday life.

Which Home Alone actor took over as the Old Man in the 2012 sequel A Christmas Story 2?

Daniel Stern, one of Home Alone's two burglars, played the Old Man opposite a teenage Ralphie who by then is angling for a car rather than a BB gun.

Why was the author eventually barred from the set of A Christmas Story?

He kept coaching the actors, telling them how to deliver their lines, until the director said he could not make the film with him hanging around and ordered him off the set.

Which real-life couple play the shoppers who send Ralphie to the back of the Santa line?

The author and his wife, co-writer Leigh Brown, play the shoppers; since he also narrates the grown Ralphie's memories, he is in effect scolding his own younger self.

In A Christmas Story, costumed characters from which film mingle with the children waiting in line for Santa?

The Wizard of Oz: a cackling Wicked Witch calls Ralphie 'a tasty little boy' as he waits, and he brushes her off with 'Don't bother me. I'm thinking.'

How does the Old Man defend the BB gun to Mother?

He had one once: 'I had one when I was eight years old,' he protests to Mother, who had to ask him what the surprise package was and still calls such things dangerous.

A Christmas Story's Scut Farkus actor was delighted to outrank which villain on a list of Christmas villains?

The Grinch: 'That's amazing,' he said of outranking him, adding that the recognition was fantastic for someone who had himself been bullied.

What does the Old Man roar has happened in the basement as black smoke pours up?

A clinker, he roars, meaning ash fused into a hard lump by a coal fire; charging down the stairs to deal with it, he goes flying over a pair of skates.

With Cleveland short of snow, where did A Christmas Story's crew find the real snow they trucked in?

Ski resorts sent real snow by the truckload: Cleveland, picked after scouts looked at some twenty cities, was cold that winter but had almost no snow of its own.

Standing over the wreckage of his prize, what is all the furious Old Man can splutter at Mother?

'Not a finger!' is all he gets out: the narrator says he stood quivering with fury, stammering as he tried to come up with a real crusher.

After the presents are opened, what does the Old Man offer Ralphie a sip of before Mother steps in?

Wine: the Old Man allows that it is not bad and offers a sip; Ralphie says yes, Mother says 'No, you don't,' and asks instead whether he had a nice Christmas.

A Christmas Story's schoolyard scenes were shot in which city of Ontario's Niagara Region?

St. Catharines: the schoolyard, flagpole and all, belonged to a real school there, a border crossing away from the Cleveland street where the Parkers' house stands.

What make of car is the Old Man fiercely loyal to, however often it freezes up?

An Oldsmobile: 'my father was an Oldsmobile man,' the narrator says, though the Old Man curses his own as a pile of junk that would freeze up in summer on the Equator.

The Old Man reads in the paper about a 'clodhopper' who swallowed what on a bet?

A yo-yo: 'That's real news,' he insists of the man from Griffith, Indiana, when Mother calls such stories silly, 'not like that politics slop.'

Which critic gave A Christmas Story three stars on release, then put it among his all-time greats years later?

Roger Ebert gave it three stars at first and added it to his Great Movies series in 2000, noting that it began modestly because people seldom go to films with holiday themes.

The boy who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story later became an executive producer of which 2008 superhero blockbuster?

Iron Man: he was an executive producer for director Jon Favreau and even appears on screen briefly as a scientist, one of many jobs he has taken behind the camera.

A Christmas Story's narrator says the line to see Santa stretched all the way back to which Indiana city?

Terre Haute: 'and I was at the end of it,' the narrator groans, the boys having just been marched to the back of the line by a pair of grown-up shoppers.

What does the Old Man accuse Mother of being toward his major award?

Jealous, he insists, 'because I won'; and when she tells him they are out of glue, he accuses her of using it all up on purpose.

Which future film star played the teenage Ralph in PBS's 1982 The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters?

Matt Dillon, already known for tough-guy teen roles, played Ralph in the American Playhouse film, with the author narrating just as he would in A Christmas Story a year later.

Under what title did the 1994 sequel to A Christmas Story first reach theaters?

It Runs in the Family was the title for its brief 1994 theatrical run; the film was retitled for its home-video release and later television airings.

Who played the Old Man in the 1994 sequel?

Charles Grodin took over as the Old Man: more than a decade had passed, so the director recast the whole family, with Mary Steenburgen as Mother and Kieran Culkin as Ralphie.

Fishing for a BB-gun hint at the kitchen table, Ralphie claims Flick saw which animals near the candy store?

Grizzly bears: the hint was meant to be 'firm, but subtle,' yet his family only stares at him, the narrator recalls, as if he had lobsters crawling out of his ears.

A Christmas Story Christmas (2022) is set in which year?

Set in December 1973, it sends a grown Ralphie back to Hohman after the Old Man's death to give his own children a proper Christmas.

Where was A Christmas Story Christmas filmed?

Hungary and Bulgaria stood in for 1970s Indiana, and the Parker house seen on screen is a replica built in Bulgaria rather than the real one in Cleveland.

Who plays Ralphie's mother in A Christmas Story Christmas?

Julie Hagerty, of Airplane!, took over as Mrs. Parker; the original actress had retired and died in January 2023, less than two months after the film's release.

On which website did a fan buy the Parker house from A Christmas Story in 2004?

eBay: a San Diego fan won the Cleveland house for $150,000 and restored it to match the film, paying for it with a business selling replicas of the Old Man's prize.

Hearing the author on his car radio, A Christmas Story's director circled the block and turned up late for what?

A date: by his own account he kept circling the block until the broadcast ended, and resolved there and then to make a film of the storyteller's work.

The Old Man's newspaper puzzle asks him to name the great characters of what?

American literature: hence Mother's disbelief when the answer he needs turns out to be the name of the Lone Ranger's nephew's horse.

On which New York radio station did A Christmas Story's author spin his tales for listeners?

WOR was the author's radio home: he told his boyhood tales on the air for years before a friend persuaded him to write them down.

Which influential 1974 slasher film did A Christmas Story's director make?

Black Christmas shows its stalking through the killer's own eyes, a trick that became a slasher staple: John Carpenter used it to open Halloween four years later.

Before playing Ralphie, Peter Billingsley was 'Messy Marvin' in a long run of commercials for which product?

Hershey's syrup was the product; Billingsley said that after 100 commercials you lose count.

What does Mother do with the bar of soap once Ralphie is sent to bed?

She tastes it herself: alone at last, she eyes the bar, slips it into her own mouth out of curiosity and promptly spits into the sink in disgust.

Who played the department-store Santa?

Jeff Gillen, who had appeared in the director's earlier films, played the harried Santa whose elves keep the line moving.

What does a panicked Ralphie first tell Santa he wants?

A football: his mind blank, he simply echoes Santa's own suggestion, though his school theme had declared that a football was not a very good Christmas present.

Where did A Christmas Story: The Musical premiere in December 2009?

Kansas City's Repertory Theatre gave the show its world premiere in December 2009; Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre took it up a year later, and Broadway followed in 2012.

Which gag toy in the teacher's drawer in A Christmas Story was not invented until years after the story is set?

Chattering teeth sit among the confiscated pranks when the teacher opens her drawer, yet the wind-up toy did not go on sale until around 1950, about a decade after the story.

Who played the adult Ralphie narrator in A Christmas Story: The Musical on Broadway?

Dan Lauria played the narrator, who on stage is the author himself: a radio host telling his listeners about one Christmas from his Indiana boyhood.

Who narrated as adult Ralphie in Fox's 2017 A Christmas Story Live!?

Matthew Broderick narrated as the grown Ralphie, a family tie: his late father, James Broderick, had played the Old Man in two public-television Parker films.

Which movie musical did Fox promote with a live commercial during A Christmas Story Live!?

The Greatest Showman, opening in cinemas that week, got a live performance of 'Come Alive' staged as a commercial in the middle of the broadcast.

The director of A Christmas Story Christmas first made his name with which animated hit?

The Angry Birds Movie: Clay Kaytis, a former Disney animator, co-directed it, then moved into live action with a Netflix Santa Claus comedy before taking on Ralphie's return.

A Christmas Story Christmas finds the grown Ralphie struggling to make it as what?

Novelist is the dream: he has taken a year off work to write his first book, and one publisher after another turns the manuscript down.

In which city was the author behind A Christmas Story born?

Chicago, on the South Side; the family soon moved across the state line into northwest Indiana, where he grew up.

How was the second sequel, A Christmas Story 2, released in 2012?

Straight to DVD in October 2012; when the next sequel came along a decade later, it ignored this one altogether and picked up from the original film.

In A Christmas Story, what does the Old Man accuse his wife of using up on purpose after his major award shatters?

The glue has run out just when he needs it for repairs. Quivering with fury, all he can add is 'Not a finger!' before gathering up the pieces.

What is Ralphie holding in A Christmas Story when the Old Man knocks the lug nuts flying during a tire change?

The hubcap is his makeshift bowl for the four nuts. When it flips, the narrator recalls seeing them silhouetted against the lights of the traffic before they vanished.

In A Christmas Story Christmas, childhood bully Scut Farkus has grown up to do which job in Hohman?

Police officer Farkus catches Ralphie 'borrowing' a Christmas tree star on Christmas Eve. He drives him home instead, saying their old schoolyard fight set him on a better path.

In A Christmas Story, the Old Man is outraged that which baseball team has traded away a player called Bullfrog?

The White Sox are his team, a natural fit for a family in Indiana's northwest corner. He grumbles that Bullfrog was the only player they had, swapped for a utility infielder.

The actor who played the Old Man in A Christmas Story had earlier starred as which 1970s TV title character?

Kolchak was a reporter who kept stumbling on vampires and other supernatural culprits. The role began in a TV movie that was the highest-rated ever made at the time.

The narrator of A Christmas Story once urged his radio listeners to ask bookshops for which novel that did not exist?

I, Libertine drew so many requests in 1956 that a publisher had a real novel written to fit the title. Theodore Sturgeon and Betty Ballantine wrote it from the prankster's outline.

The actor who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story grew up to direct which 2009 comedy starring Vince Vaughn?

Couples Retreat was his first major film as a director, with Vaughn and Jon Favreau in the cast. All three had appeared together in Four Christmases the year before.

In A Christmas Story Christmas, the grown-up Flick now owns which business that once belonged to his father?

A tavern is Flick's inheritance, and it becomes the old gang's meeting place. One classmate has run up such a tab there that Flick offers to cancel it in return for a sledding stunt.

In A Christmas Story, which toy does Ralphie claim he really wants after his BB gun request alarms his mother?

Tinkertoys are his panicked cover story. The narrator admits he could not believe his own ears and knew she would never buy it.

The boy who played Flick in A Christmas Story had co-starred with Richard Pryor a year earlier in which comedy?

The Toy put him opposite Pryor and Jackie Gleason for director Richard Donner. A year later he was the kid with his tongue frozen to a pole.