You'll shoot your eye out, is the mantra that the movie's main character hears over & over. All Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB gun. He has fantasies about protecting his family from the BAD GUYS, armed with his Red Ryder BB gun. Everybody seems to be against it. Ralphie turns in a paper to his school teacher, which tells an epic story, "What I Want for Christmas." At the bottom of the returned story is the written comment, "You'll put your eye out." His mother repeats the same line & even the "old man," aka Santa Claus, tells Ralphie his depressing view of the future. 

Ralphie does get the Red Ryder gun and he takes it out for his first shot. Take a wild guess, what happens to Ralphie? No, he doesn't shoot his eye out, he does shoot his glasses and breaks them. Is he going to tell his mom that he almost shot his eye out? Of course not, what self-respecting kid would tell the truth to his mother? He lies and tells her that he slipped and the glasses broke when he fell. He added a few tears for realism, which is always a nice touch.

"A Christmas Story" is a classic movie, which was set in the year 1940. It was definitely a different world, but just the same, many things are exactly alike. Take Ralphie from 1940 and place him in 2010, change the Red Ryder BB gun fantasy to a current fad, the 1940 movie has been transformed into a story that plays out in most American houses every December. That is why the movie is timeless and is a classic movie.




The house which was used in the movie, is located in Cleveland, Ohio. The current owners bought the house after they had seen that it was for sale on ebay. They decided to transform the house into the 1940's movie version of the house, because they wanted it to be turned into a museum. Interior scenes were not filmed in the house. The new owners tore the interior out and rebuilt it, so that it would look identical to the movie version.





"A Christmas Story" museum has a website which has lots of interesting tidbits, including photos of other filming locations. One of my favorite movie scenes was the infamous Christmas dinner, at "Bo Ling Chop Suey Palace." Photos of that restaurant & Ralphie's school can be seen on the website.

I have a few advertisements, from two comic books, one from December, 1955 & another from December, 1959, which are advertising the Red Ryder gun & other BB gun models. Surprisingly, not one of the ads mentions that you should be careful, because if you don't  - YOU WILL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT. Golly Gee Whiz, why wouldn't they include that information in the copy?

DECEMBER 1955



DECEMBER 1959







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