FAQ for
A Christmas Story (1983) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for A Christmas Story can be found here.

A Christmas Story is based on a 1966 anthology of short stories, titled In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by American author Jean Shepherd [1920-1999]. Shepherd also helped to adapt his stories to the screen for A Christmas Story, and it is his voice narrating the movie as adult Ralpie Parker (young Ralphie played by Peter Billingsley). There are two sequels to A Christmas Story: Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss (1988) and It Runs in the Family (1994).

The story takes place in 1939 or 1940 in the fictional northern Indiana town of Hohman (based on real-life Hammond, Indiana, where writer Jean Shepherd grew up). Scenes from outside the Parkers' house were shot on location in the Tremont neighborhood on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. The house, called The Christmas Story House, used in the filming has since been refurbished on the inside to look like it looked during the filming. There's a museum and a gift shop located across the street.

They cut a small hole on the flag pole and had a vacuum hose attached that would suck in Flick (Scott Schwartz)'s tongue. The hose trick worked so well that Scott was actually stuck to the pole until they would turn the hose off. Rumor has it that they actually played a prank on him one day on the set and left the hose on while they all went to lunch.

Pouring warm water over it will usually work.

Yes it was, although it didn't go by the name Ralphie uses in the film ("Official Red Ryder 200 shot, range-model air rifle"). It was called the Red Ryder BB Gun. It was first produced in 1938 and became wildly popular. The features Ralphie describes, "a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time" were not features of the original model. Since the Red Ryder wasn't produced until 1938 and the film takes place in 1939 or 1940, Mr Parker (Darren McGavin)'s claim that he had one when he was eight years old is impossible, although the Old Man could have had an entirely different BB rifle that was available when he was a kid.