A Christmas Story

By Sherril Steele-Carlin

A charming movie has captured my heart.

This film was unknown to us until last year. For some reason, I just never watched it, although I must have seen it advertised on television numerous times. A friend gave us the DVD, and we just watched it again last weekend. It always strikes me what good writing went into this film. (The author was Jean Shepherd, who also narrates the film.)

If you don't know the story, it's the tale of young Ralphie, a 9-year-old boy whose only dream is to have a Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas. He writes about it, he dreams about it, and he drops numerous hints about it to his family and friends, but he holds out no hope for ever actually getting the gun. All anyone will say to him when he brings it up is "You'll put your eye out with one of those!" The a-typical 50s family is incredibly funny; as are some of the boyhood trials and tribulations he goes through. They will certainly bring back memories of childhood for just about anyone who watches this film.

One classic film moment comes when Ralphie receives his long anticipated Little Orphan Annie decoder ring in the mail, then locks himself in the bathroom to decode the secret radio show message. His disappointment in discovering the message is simply an ad for Ovaltine is hilarious, but also poignant. Who doesn't remember a time in our youth when we finally discovered there was a big world out there, and it wasn't all magic?

Now that I've seen it a couple of times, I just love it, and look forward to watching it every year. The story is extremely well written, and it is narrated by the author, who has the perfect voice for the narration.  We have several different films we love to watch for the holidays, and this has been added to the list. The acting is great, and the story is even better. (The end will surprise you!). All in all, "A Christmas Story" is an undiscovered gem that will light up your holiday season.