We don't see the appeal of A Christmas Story

If it's what I'm thinking, you father's ex-wife would smack you for using it

 

I'm sure most of us had good Christmases growing up. This movie takes us back to those times. I could watch ACS time after time.

My parents were born in the mid-40s and they love this movie. Every year during this marathon, they invariably bring up a memory (getting a Christmas tree, listening to Little Orphan Annie on the radio) that is jogged loose by the movie. Two thumbs up from me always.

 

My mom would never do that, she thinks the same thing

 

Maybe my favorite part of the whole movie comes in that scene. Not from the feel-good moment of Ralphie getting the gun, but seeing the look on the dad's face as he's giving it to him. The guy looks like HE'S 8 years old again, opening that great present for the first time.
Darren McGavin knocked that scene so far out of the park it hasn't landed yet.

 

Great post, Cosmo, but I'd like to add just one thing:

"The Old Man" is supposedly so uninvolved in the kids' lives. He's the breadwinner. The furnace fighter. But he supposedly is only there to be feared by the kids, no? And then he comes through at the end in such huge fashion. Ralphie brings it up once in the kitchen in front of dad and mom, while dad is reading the paper. He leaves the ad for it in his mom's magazine, he asks Santa, he writes an essay about it. Everyone rebuffs him. But Dad heard it once a few weeks earlier, knows no one else is going to get it for Ralphie and not only goes out and buys it himself without mom's knowledge but takes the trouble to wrap it and hide it behind the desk and pull the ultimate surprise for Ralphie at the end. And just watching The Old Man watch Ralphie open it and load it, you see right there what every father should be -- a man who is completely sold on making his kid happy, even if that's almost the opposite of his image so much else of the time.

I've seem the movie hundreds of times. And I took that out of the movie just today, for the first time, how much "The Old Man" came through.

And then I thought of how growing up and how many times my Dad came through just like that.

For my family, this was a very special Christmas. Because of the economy, we all agreed to cut back on the gift-buying. Mom and Dad got into the gift exchange with the rest of us instead of us all buying something for them and them for us.

But we decided to one special thing for Mom and Dad this year. I have three brothers, three sisters-in-law, a sister, six nieces and nephews (two are married and one had his steady girlfriend with him at Mom and Dad's) and two great-nieces. We decided to put together a book of quotes, lessons, memories and thank yous to Mom and Dad for all they've done over the years. One of my memories was how my older brother was out riding his bike and I didn't have a bike (I must have been about 7 at the time, and money was very, very short). My Dad couldn't take it any more. He was washing the car out front and saw how sad I was that I couldn't be out with all the other kids and my brother. He dropped what he was doing and took me and bought a bike that afternoon. Doctor bills would wait just a little longer. I got a 20-inch Schwinn that afternoon, and 40-some years later last night, Dad got thanked once again. To see the tears in Mom and Dad's eyes last night as they read that book will never be forgotten.

And that's why I love A Christmas Story even more today than I did two days ago. Even though I'd seen it more than 100 times.

 

Perfect.

My Dad, at the time, was almost a mirror-image of "The Old Man." They share similar personalities, both very unaffectionate, but when they get those opportunities to make their kids really happy, they love it.

My Mom denied me time after time for months to get a Red Ryder BB gun when I was 9 or 10 years old. After we got done opening up Christmas presents on Christmas morning, I was sitting right in the middle of my parents (the last Christmas we were all together) and got upset about something I can't remember. In the middle of my tears, my Dad: "Hey, what's that over there behind the TV? Go check it out." I get up, I go and say something to the effect of, "I'm sure it's a Red Ryder BB gun."

It sure as hell was. To this day that was one of my happiest moments I've ever had with my father. He moved out about a month later and my parents were soon divorced. I had that Red Ryder for years, and A Christmas Story is a constant memory of my Dad and Christmas.

 

Damn dusty in here.

 

I like the movie because the folks start hitting the booze before 10 a.m., because the kids have a relative that seems to go out of their way to get them presents that they will not enjoy in the least, because when you are a kid a $20 or $30 dollar toy can provide you enough joy to last seemingly forever.