Some movies are classics that become family favorites that have to be watched year after year during the holiday season and A Christmas Story is one such movie. This movie is based on an autobiographical look back on Jean Shepherd’s hilarious memories of childhood.

The star of the movie is Ralphie and he has one thing that he wants most in the whole world for Christmas. He wants a particular Red Ryder BB gun so badly that he plots and thinks about how he can get that gun. He goes to different adults with this Christmas gift wish, but not matter which adult in his life he tells, it gets brushed aside as a bad idea.

Forgetting what it’s like to be a child, the adults all say the same thing – that if he did have a BB gun, he?ll end up shooting his eye out. His mother, his teacher and even Santa Claus issue negative responses to his quest for the gun and Santa even gives Ralphie a push away where he tumbles down the slide in despair.

Ralphie is always just a little mischievous ? like when he goes along with a plot to get his friend to stick his tongue to a frozen pole outside at recess. No one is admitting they had a role in it, and we hear it from his point of view, which is hilarious.

Another time is when he can’t take his eyes off of his father?s prized possession ? a lamp in the shape of a woman?s stocking-covered leg that lights up the neighborhood, much to the dismay of his mother.

Sometimes, it is Ralphie who is at the center of a serious situation. He?s still discouraged about getting a lower grade on his composition when the town bully pelts him in the face with a snowball. Ralphie stands there unmoving for a moment and the bully’s pal (played by Yano Anaya) starts calling him four eyes.

A Christmas Story

When the bully starts making fun of Ralphie for crying, Ralphie launches himself at the bully and begins to pummel him. The pal hurries over to intervene and is knocked flat by Ralphie.

As a group of kids gather around the fight, Ralphie begins to curse up a storm, saying all kinds of vile words (which you don?t really hear) while some of the kids look on in surprise and shock. It takes Ralphie?s mother to pull him off of the bully and he winds up getting his mouth washed out with soap as he tries to avoid explaining where he really learned those words (his father).

The movie is set in 1940s and has that classical feel. Told from Ralphie’s point of view, the movie is both a sweet and a funny look at what it was like to be a nine year old during that time in history. Watch it to see if his parents (or Santa) ever get him the Red Ryder BB Gun that he?s been dreaming about.

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