Interesting Facts About ‘A Christmas Story’

Interesting facts about "A Christmas Story" make the movie that much better. There’s no doubt that it's one of the most popular Christmas movies of all time. It is watched by families repeatedly every year. Since its release in 1983, the film has gained more popularity every year. As a matter of fact, the movie wasn’t even a big hit when it came out. The film starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie: a boy who’s only Christmas wish is to get a Red Ryder BB Gun. A storytelling movie that’s not only filled with quirky characters and filming style but also some cool facts that I thought would be fun to share.

DID YOU KNOW?

The triple-dog-dare: In the schoolyard scene, Ralphie’s schoolmates exchange some pretty harsh words and then there’s a dare to lick the frozen flagpole. Flick’s tongue gets stuck to the pole. For filming, a hidden suction tube was used to create an illusion that his tongue was frozen to the frozen pole.

That Chinese restaurant scene: The scene takes place at a Chinese restaurant called “Bo ling”. It’s only because a neon sign across the top of the restaurant that is supposed to read “Bowling” was missing the w.

It was an inspiration: We all know the TV show “The Wonder Years” with Fred Savage.  Well, it has been reported that it was inspired by “A Christmas Story”.

Ralphie misspells Christmas: In the classroom scene when Ralphie gets his Christmas-theme paper, there is a close-up of his “lowly” C+ the teacher wrote on his paper. Below that, you will see in Ralphie’s handwriting that he misspelled “Christmas” and wrote it as “Chistmas”.

They never say Ralphie’s parents’ names: Darren McGavin plays the dad and he is always referred to as “Old Man”.  Melinda Dillon plays Ralphie’s mom and she is listed in the credits as “Mother”.

It was a series of short stories: Before “A Christmas Story” was a movie, it was 2 different volumes of a series of short stories by the late writer and radio personality, Jean Shepherd.  The books titled, “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” and “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories And Other Disasters”, were actually fictionalized stories of Shepherd’s childhood while in Indiana during the Depression-era.

He didn’t say “fudge”: In an interview, Billingsley said he had to say this “bad word” over and over again until they got the take the way the producer wanted it. He also explained that since he’d been acting in Hollywood at a very early age, it wasn’t the first time he had to say it.

The snow was made out of soap and foam: Yes, a lot of sets use fake snow. But, not soap and foam for snow.  During one scene, soap shavings and firefighter’s foam were making the set incredibly slippery.

The broken glasses weren’t a prop:  When Ralphie’s eyeglasses broke, they were not a prop. They were actually Billingsley’s real eyeglasses.

The Leg Lamp was inspired by an old-school soft drink: The infamous Leg Lamp was something Shepherd imagined after seeing an illuminated Nehi Soda advertisement. And now there are many people who have a leg lamp that they pull out every Christmas.