Comments on: 12 Things You Might Not Know About A Christmas Story (even though you’ve seen it 90 times)

By: Tomas

Tomas — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:36:10 +0000

@ Eric – great post re: The Grand Canyon Suite: On the Trail by Ferde Grofe! I immediately went to youtube and sure enough. Great movie trivia.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:06:51 +0000

I never even heard of this movie until I went to college (one of my best friends in college was obsessed with it–as well as the rest of her family). And I’ve never, to this day, seen it.

My favorite Christmas movies when I was a child were “Gremlins” and “Home Alone 2″ (never liked HA 1, never saw 3 or 4). As an adult, I really like “While You Were Sleeping” and “Elf.” I HATE Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, which, I know, is blasphemy…

By: Joe in PA

Joe in PA — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:40:39 +0000

Yellow eyes!

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:31:09 +0000

If you can’t get the an actual leg lamp, here’s the next best thing. Walgreen’s has a window cling that is all black except for a drawing of the lamp. If you hang it in a window and let light shine behind it, from out in the street it actually looks like the lamp is in your window! Best Christmas decoration I’ve bought in a while (And it may stay up all year…)

By: David

David — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:28:46 +0000

What about Shepherd’s “The Great Fourth of July and Other Disasters”, with Matt Dillon in the lead? Wasn’t that a sequel?

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:07:56 +0000

I thought Great American Fourth of July was a prequel, but I could be wrong. Like the others who mentioned it, I saw it once and never found it again since. I can’t understand how this classic got buried.

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:30:54 +0000

The Leg Lamp originally appeared in another Jean Shepherd film, "The Phantom of the Open Hearth" (1976) with James Broderick (Matthew Broderick's father) as the old man. The scene in The Phantom of the Open Hearth and A Christmas Story are eerily similar.

By: Clevegal42

Clevegal42 — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:32:08 +0000

I love this movie (I list it as one of my favorites!) and I’ve been to the house. I should probably be ashamed of this because of my age, but I whined and complained enough for my family to take me there when I was up in Cleveland. This was about 4 or 5 years ago and my dad’s response was that he had driven me past it before and I just didn’t remember but I wanted to see the inside! The inside of the house isn’t the same as what the set was, so I was disappointed. They have some stuff from the movie, but I didn’t enjoy the inside or the “museum” enough for $7.

It looks like it is now up to $10 and there is now a separate gift shop next door as well as the museum across the street. They may have changed it a bit since I was there, but for me it was enough to go once.

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:54:50 +0000

My family gave the big leg lamp a few years ago. I still have it out in the front room.

By: weezle

weezle — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:17:50 +0000

Growing up in a Cleveland suburb with a huge Jean Sheppard fan for a father A Christmas Story and Ollie Hopnoodle’s have been staples in my life for over two decades (although I haven’t seen the latter in many many years). Here’s another fun tidbit: to get the snow in the movie they hired Bradywine Ski Center and their many snow machines. It never seems to snow when you want it.