A Christmas Story House

By Callie Hayman '22

December 2018

In July of 2018, my mother and I visited the Christmas Story house. The Christmas Story house is located in Cleveland, Ohio.The house is the original home from the movie “A Christmas Story” and was recently renovated with all new furniture. The leg lamp still stands in the window. We were able to learn some interesting facts about the movie and house. The original movie was released around Thanksgiving of 1983 and removed from theaters before Christmas. Fans protested and the movie was re-released in 1984.

The flagpole vs. tongue scene was actually more simple than it seemed.In this scene a young boy was dared to lick a flagpole. His tongue got stuck and they called the fire department to get him off. To pull this off, they placed a suction pipe in the flagpole. The snow seen throughout the movie was never actually snow. It was a mix of firefighter foam, mashed potato flakes and soap bubbles.

The movie producers only made 5 Red Ryder BB guns. The film was such an instant classic that these BB guns quickly became collectables. Three of the actors have 1, the museum has 1, and 1 is still missing. The gun sold for $10,000 to the museum in an auction.

The museum contains 2 trucks used in the movie, costumes, and the house. It is a very popular destination, especially around the holidays. The museum gets over 80,000 visitors a year. The bunny suit is still owned by “Ralphie” and the museum can not own the suit. The house sold for $150,000 on eBay in 2004. You can rent the house and stay in it overnight, after 8 o’clock you have free range of the home.

The house was really accurate and amazing. We got pictures by the tree with the Red Ryder BB gun. We saw his original notebook in his room, the bathroom where he hid under the sink, and the backyard with the shed. I would definitely go back again.