And Now for Something Completely Different

A Christmas Story

Posted Friday, December 25, 2009, at 10:53 AM

The House from A Christmas Story

I would first like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. I had originally planned on not blogging until after the New year but I just had to share my experience with the movie A Christmas Story.

I first saw the movie, at least that I remember, in about the late 80s when it first appeared on television and I absolutely loved it. The movie, when released in theaters, was a flop. But all movies that have a cult following do.

For my money there isn't a better Christmas movie out there. And there are literally hundreds to choose from. But it's got very tough competition from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, and of course It's a Wonderful Life. There are of course many, many more than that but none of them in my opinion hold a candle to the story of Ralphie and his quest to get an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle.

Everything about the movie is an unusual look at Christmas season for a family. Just about everyone has had an experience, either as a child or an adult, that happened in this movie. My family has eaten Chinese many times on Christmas, though we never had a duck smiling at us. Some of us have had a friend that was stupid enough to stick their tongue on a pole. Most of us have had the experience of thinking that we have written the greatest "What I Want for Christmas" theme only to be completely rebuked by the teacher with a C+ grade. There isn't one dull moment in this movie. And of course just about all of us as children have gotten in trouble for cussing and ended up selling one of our friends out for hearing it from them when in actuality we had heard our dad say it more times then we could count.

I have the movie on DVD and TBS is running it's annual 24 hour marathon last night into today. I have watched partial or all of it at least on three different occasions this time around.

I have always been completely enthralled with this movie and I always will be, if you haven't seen it take some time today and check it out. Christians have Jerusalem and the Vatican, Muslims have Mecca and Medina, but I have the greatest of them all (naturally in my own opinion) ... I have the house from A Christmas Story which is in Cleveland, Ohio.

A man who was completely enthralled with the movie as well did some research on the house and found out that it had been put up for auction in Cleveland, Ohio. He won the auction and completely restored the house to the way it looked in the film. One day before I die I will make it to this house.