98 Fun Facts About Christmas Story

The film won two Genie Awards in 1984, the top film prizes of which country?

Canada's Genie Awards honored the film for direction and original screenplay in 1984, reflecting its Ontario shoot and largely Canadian crew.

What does Ralphie tell his mother caused the injury near his eye on Christmas morning?

Ralphie blames a falling icicle; the BB had actually ricocheted off his metal target, knocked off his glasses, and he stepped on them while searching.

What "major award" does the Old Man win in a newspaper contest?

The prize sets off the "Battle of the Lamp", which ends when Mrs. Parker "accidentally" breaks it while watering her plant.

Which of Ralphie's friends gets his tongue stuck to a flagpole after a 'triple-dog dare'?

Flick's tongue freezes to the flagpole after Schwartz's triple-dog dare; the class then refuses to tell their teacher who dared him.

Roughly how many boys did the director audition for Ralphie before settling on Peter Billingsley?

The director saw roughly 8,000 boys for Ralphie; Billingsley had been the first considered, and Sean Astin and Wil Wheaton were among the other hopefuls.

Where do the Parkers end up eating Christmas dinner after their own is ruined?

Bo Ling's Chop Suey Palace, whose neon 'Bowling' sign has lost its W, serves the Parkers duck while the waiters mangle 'Deck the Halls'.

The film's adult-looking-back narration style was later adopted by which TV series?

The Wonder Years (1988) used a grown-up Kevin Arnold narrating his childhood, a device widely traced to the film's adult-Ralphie voice-over.

Which 1966 book is the film primarily based on?

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (1966) collects Shepherd's semi-autobiographical stories; the film strings several of them into one 1940s Christmas.

Who is the director of 'A Christmas Story'?

Bob Clark directed and co-wrote the film after years of pitching Shepherd's stories to studios; he won the Genie Award for Best Director for it.

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

The teacher marks the theme C+, crushing Ralphie's fantasy of an A+++++ and a classroom ovation.

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

Randy will only eat by playing "mommy's little piggie": face in the plate, snorting through the meal, while the Old Man threatens to use a plumber's helper.

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

The Bears: the Old Man, a diehard fan, sputters that they are the 'Chicago Chipmunks' when their game against Green Bay comes up at dinner.

In A Christmas Story, the Old Man proudly mispronounces which shipping warning stamped on the crate holding his 'major award'?

He sounds out 'Fragile' as 'fra-gee-lay' and concludes it must be Italian. The crate holds the leg lamp that goes straight into the family's front window.

What gift does the department store Santa suggest to Ralphie?

Santa suggests a football; a dazed Ralphie nearly accepts before clawing back up the slide to finally ask for his air rifle.

The film's director appears in a cameo as which character?

Co-writer Leigh Brown also sneaks in, as the woman standing in the Santa line.

What year was the classic holiday film 'A Christmas Story' originally released?

A Christmas Story opened on November 18, 1983, to positive reviews; its marathon TV airings from 1997 onward turned it into a perennial favorite.

Three of the short stories behind the film were first published in which magazine?

The stories were later collected in the 1966 book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.

Who provided the voice narration for the adult Ralphie Parker in 'A Christmas Story'?

The adult Ralphie, who narrates the entire story, is voiced by the film's co-writer and source material author, Jean Shepherd, who also made a cameo appearance in the department store.

What specific type of air rifle does Ralphie desperately want for Christmas?

Ralphie wants a Daisy Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle; the 'compass in the stock' detail came from Daisy's Buck Jones model, not the Red Ryder.

What phrase is repeatedly used to warn Ralphie about his desired Christmas gift?

'You'll shoot your eye out!' comes from his mother, his teacher, and finally the department store Santa, who says it before shoving Ralphie down the slide.

Who has to be called to free the boy whose tongue is frozen to the flagpole?

The fire department, with police in tow, has to unstick him after the class runs back inside at the bell and leaves him there through recess.

What does the Old Man sadly do with his smashed 'major award'?

Unable to fix it, the Old Man sadly buries it in the backyard, having first tried to glue it back together while Mrs. Parker hid her giggles.

What word does Ralphie say that gets his mouth washed out with soap?

Ralphie says 'Fudge' (really 'the F-dash-dash-dash word, the queen mother of dirty words') and blames Schwartz, whose mother is heard beating him over the phone.

What Christmas centerpiece do the Bumpus hounds devour on Christmas Day?

The Bumpus hounds devour the turkey; the narrator mourns the lost turkey sandwiches, hash, gravy and gallons of turkey soup, and the family eats out.

What gift does Ralphie receive from his Aunt Clara that he describes as a 'pink nightmare'?

Both Ralphie and the Old Man are appalled, and Mrs. Parker relents: he only has to wear it when Aunt Clara visits.

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

Randy hides under the kitchen sink, sobbing 'Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!'; Mrs. Parker coaxes him out with a glass of milk.

What was the name of the school bully who tormented Ralphie and his friends?

Scut Farkus, with his yellow eyes and coonskin cap, torments the boys until Ralphie snaps and pummels him in the snow.

What popular radio program's secret message does Ralphie try to decode?

Little Orphan Annie's radio show sends the coded message; the decoder pin on screen is a genuine 1940 model, a quiet clue to the story's year.

Which Canadian city hosted the sound-stage filming of the Parker home interiors?

The exteriors are Cleveland, Ohio; the tree-buying scene and the Parker house interiors were shot on a Toronto sound stage.

What brand of soap was used to wash Ralphie's mouth out?

Lifebuoy is the brand; the narrator, a self-styled soap connoisseur, preferred Lux and found Palmolive 'piquant'.

Which star was considered for the role of the Old Man before Darren McGavin was cast?

Jack Nicholson was considered for the Old Man, but the modest budget could not cover his fee; Darren McGavin was cast instead.

Randy is bundled so tightly into which garment that he wails he cannot put his arms down?

Randy's snowsuit is layered on so thick that he cannot put his arms down; his mother just tells him to put them down when he gets to school.

What was the name of Ralphie's elementary school teacher?

She is named for the author's real second-grade teacher at Warren G. Harding Elementary in Hammond, back in 1928.

What common household item was used to simulate snow during filming in Cleveland?

The winter of 1982-83 was one of the warmest of the century in the Snow Belt, so the crew also spread shredded vinyl and firefighter's foam over the neighborhood.

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

The narrator dubs it 'Chinese turkey'; the duck arrives whole and grinning, the Old Man says it is smiling at him, and the waiter lops off its head.

The classroom scenes were shot at the Victoria School in which Ontario city?

Victoria School in St. Catharines, Ontario, provided the classroom; the flagpole scene was shot in its schoolyard.

What fictional town in Indiana is the setting for 'A Christmas Story'?

The Parkers live in Hohman, Indiana, Shepherd's fictional version of his own hometown; the name recurs throughout his stories.

How many back-to-back airings make up the annual "24 Hours of A Christmas Story" TV marathon?

TNT started the marathon in 1997 and TBS took it over in 2004; since 2014 both networks have run it, staggered an hour apart.

In Ralphie's narration, what make of car was 'The Old Man' devoted to?

'My father was an Oldsmobile man,' says the narrator; the family's battered Olds blows a tire on the way home from buying the Christmas tree.

The tongue-stuck-to-the-flagpole scene was achieved using what special effect?

A hidden suction tube ran through a plastic pole and held the actor's tongue in place, with the vacuum's pull controlled off camera.

What was the name of the department store where Ralphie and Randy visited Santa?

Higbee's, the real downtown Cleveland department store, let the crew film inside, which is why the production chose Cleveland for its exteriors.

Which comic-strip hero did Ralphie team up with in a deleted fantasy scene?

Flash Gordon: a cut fantasy had Ralphie helping Flash fight Ming the Merciless; Paul Hubbard and Colin Fox remain in the credits as Flash and Ming.

Which toadie tags along with the film's yellow-eyed bully?

Grover Dill, played by Yano Anaya, is the bully's crony; in Shepherd's original story Grover Dill himself was the bully Ralphie fought.

The secret radio message Ralphie finally decodes turns out to be a commercial for what?

The message is 'Be sure to drink your Ovaltine'; Ralphie storms out of the bathroom muttering about the crummy commercial.

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

Victor: the Old Man shouts the answer in triumph during the 'Great Characters in American Literature' contest, which wins him his major award.

Which original cast member was the only one to return for the 1994 sequel?

Tedde Moore alone returned, again as Ralphie's teacher, in 1994's My Summer Story; the Parker family was entirely recast.

What does Santa use to send Ralphie back down the exit slide after he finally blurts out his wish?

Ralphie had frozen up and asked for a football before scrambling back up the slide to correct himself.

How many "smelly hound dogs" does the narrator claim the Bumpuses keep next door?

'At least 785 smelly hound dogs,' the narrator claims, and the pack ambushes the Old Man in the driveway every night.

According to the narrator, what does the Old Man weave while doing battle with the furnace?

'He wove a tapestry of obscenity that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan,' says the narrator of the furnace battles.

What did Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) accidentally chew on during the filming of the bandit fantasy scene?

Real chewing tobacco was used for the Black Bart fantasy; the 11-year-old Billingsley got dizzy and sick, and a substitute was used afterward.

Which actress played Mrs. Parker, Ralphie's mother, in the original film?

Melinda Dillon was already a two-time Oscar nominee, for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice, when she took on Mrs. Parker.

The Old Man's actor had earlier starred as a monster-hunting reporter in which 1970s TV series?

Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak chased vampires and werewolves through Chicago in Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-75), a decade before he fought a furnace in Indiana.

Who played Ralphie's little brother Randy?

Petrella was cast immediately before filming began and later spent a winter as a guest tour guide at the Cleveland house.

Before playing Ralphie, Peter Billingsley was famous as which Hershey's syrup ad character?

As Messy Marvin, the Hershey's chocolate syrup kid, Billingsley was already a veteran of some 120 commercials, having started at age two.

Roughly what was the film's production budget?

The budget was about $3.3 million; the film grossed roughly $20 million in its initial release before television made it a perennial.

The film opened in theaters a week before which holiday?

It opened November 18, 1983, six days before Thanksgiving, and had largely left theaters by Christmas despite good reviews.

In which year was the film added to the U.S. National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in December 2012, calling it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Which cable network launched the 24-hour marathon in 1997?

TNT launched the marathon in 1997; sister network TBS took it over in 2004, and from 2014 both channels carried it.

The fictional setting is a stand-in for which real Indiana city where the author grew up?

The town's made-up name is borrowed from a main avenue in downtown Hammond, the only Indiana city bordering Chicago.

Besides the 1966 book, the film draws on which 1971 Shepherd collection?

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters (1971) supplied bits like the Bumpus hounds; Shepherd first told the tales on WOR radio.

Why was the compass on Ralphie's BB gun placed on the opposite side of the stock?

The exact model with a compass and sundial never existed; Daisy custom-built the prop to match the story's description.

The cowboy Ralphie's air rifle is named after originated in what medium in 1938?

Red Ryder began as Fred Harman's newspaper comic strip in 1938 and ran until 1965; Daisy licensed the name for its BB gun in 1940.

Characters from which 1939 MGM film march in the parade outside the department store?

The parade was shot around 3 a.m. so that modern skyscrapers would not be visible behind the 1940s-dressed square.

The Parker house exteriors were filmed in which Cleveland neighborhood?

The house at 3159 West 11th Street in Tremont, overlooking the Cuyahoga valley's steel mills, stood in for the Parker home; it was restored as a museum in 2006.

In 2004, a fan bought the Parker house through which website?

Buyer Brian Jones funded the down payment with profits from his company that sells replicas of the Old Man's 'major award'.

Under what title was the 1994 sequel originally released in theaters?

Released as It Runs in the Family in 1994, it grossed well under $100,000 in a tiny run and was retitled My Summer Story for video.

Who played the Old Man in the 1994 sequel?

Charles Grodin took over as the Old Man, with Mary Steenburgen as Mother; the long gap since 1983 meant the original kids had aged out.

Which Culkin brother played Ralphie in the 1994 sequel?

Kieran Culkin played Ralphie, and his real-life brother Christian Culkin played Randy, keeping the Parker boys in the family.

Which actor played the Old Man in the 2012 direct-to-DVD sequel?

Billingsley refused involvement with that film and has said he has never watched it.

In what year is the 2022 sequel 'A Christmas Story Christmas' set?

The sequel is set in December 1973; Ralph, now 42 and living in Chicago, has taken a year off to write a novel that publishers keep rejecting.

In the 2022 sequel, what does Mrs. Parker ask Ralph to write after the Old Man dies?

Mother asks Ralph to write the Old Man's obituary; he cannot, until the story of that Christmas pours out and becomes his first published piece.

Who took over the role of Mrs. Parker in the 2022 sequel?

The original actress was retired but gave the project her blessing; she died about two months after the film's release.

In the 2022 sequel, what job does Ralph's old yellow-eyed bully now hold?

He catches Ralph breaking into a tavern but drives him home, saying their childhood fight set him on a better path.

Principal photography for the 2022 sequel took place mainly in which two countries?

Shooting ran in Bulgaria and Hungary in early 2022, with a replica of the Cleveland Street house built in Bulgaria.

On which streaming service did the 2022 sequel premiere?

It premiered on HBO Max on November 17, 2022, one day short of 39 years after the original opened in theaters.

In the 2022 sequel, what does Ralph 'borrow' from a friend's tavern on Christmas Eve night?

The family's own star had fallen off the tree and shattered, and every shop in town was already closed.

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

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote the score, replacing an earlier Kansas City version; they went on to Dear Evan Hansen and the lyrics of La La Land.

Who played the adult narrator in the 2012 Broadway production of the musical?

Lauria is best known as the father on a TV series that borrowed the film's adult-looking-back narration device.

Which network aired the three-hour 'A Christmas Story Live!' in December 2017?

Fox aired it on December 17, 2017; about 4.5 million watched, far below the 12 million for Fox's Grease: Live in January 2016.

Who played Ralphie's mother in the 2017 live TV musical?

Maya Rudolph took the Mother role, and fellow SNL alum Ana Gasteyer played Mrs. Schwartz, a character who is only an offended voice on the phone in the film.

Which actor served as the adult Ralphie narrator in the 2017 live TV musical?

Matthew Broderick narrated as the adult Ralphie; his father James Broderick had played the Old Man in the 1976 PBS Shepherd adaptation The Phantom of the Open Hearth.

Mrs. Parker's actress was cast on the strength of her similar role in which Spielberg film?

She earned an Oscar nomination as the mother whose son is taken by aliens, then played a mother losing a battle over a leg lamp.

Which hit 1981 teen comedy gave the director the clout to make this film?

Porky's (1981) was a huge hit, and its profits gave Clark the clout to make the gentle Christmas film he had wanted since hearing Shepherd on radio in 1968.

Which 1974 slasher precursor did the director make a decade before his holiday classic?

Black Christmas (1974), with Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder menaced by a killer in a sorority house, is an acknowledged forerunner of the slasher genre.

Which cast member sued Warner Bros. in 2011 over an unauthorized figurine of his character?

A contract mishap meant he had never received merchandising rights; the suit was dropped after the studio cited a 'generic face'.

The actor who played the boy stuck to the flagpole co-starred with Richard Pryor in which 1982 film?

Scott Schwartz played the rich kid who 'buys' Richard Pryor in The Toy, with Jackie Gleason as his father, a year before his tongue froze to the pole.

Who played Ralphie's friend Schwartz in the original film?

R. D. Robb played Schwartz, who issues the triple-dog dare; Robb returned to the role 39 years later in A Christmas Story Christmas.

The narrator's 1956 radio hoax had bookstores ordering which nonexistent novel?

Demand grew so loud that Theodore Sturgeon secretly wrote the book to Shepherd's outline and Ballantine actually published it.

After his mouth is washed out, Ralphie fantasizes about suffering what fate from the soap?

Ralphie imagines going blind from 'soap poisoning' and tapping into the kitchen with a cane and dark glasses while his guilt-stricken parents weep.

The narrator says the line for Santa stretched all the way to which Indiana city?

It is one of many Hoosier in-jokes, alongside a boy in nearby Griffith who swallowed a yo-yo.

How does Mrs. Parker distract the Old Man so he never learns of Ralphie's fight?

She downplays the brawl at dinner, a quiet kindness that earns Ralphie's lasting respect.

Ralphie's elementary school is named after which U.S. president?

A real Warren G. Harding Elementary exists in Hammond, where the author attended second grade in 1928.

Which broadcast network rejected the film for television as 'too dark'?

It never aired on a major network; local syndication in 1986-87 is what first built its cult following.

The Cleveland department store from the film was rebranded in 1992 under which chain's name?

The store kept the Santa slide built for the film and used it for several years; the flagship closed for good in 2002.

The downtown building that hosted the Santa scenes reopened in 2012 as what?

The 11-story Public Square landmark, once famous for its Silver Grille restaurant, became the Horseshoe and later the Jack Cleveland Casino.

Which soundtrack song was not written until 1951, well after the film's setting?

Much of the Bing Crosby material heard in the film was actually recorded after World War II.

Which frequent collaborator co-produced the 2022 sequel with Ralphie's actor?

Vince Vaughn co-produced through his and Billingsley's company; the two became friends on The Fourth Man, a 1990 CBS Schoolbreak Special about steroids.

Ralphie's actor has a cameo in which 2003 Will Ferrell Christmas comedy?

Billingsley plays Ming Ming, the elf supervising Buddy's toy-making in Elf; he later became an executive producer on Favreau's Iron Man.