{"id":2210,"date":"2022-12-13T08:19:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2210"},"modified":"2022-12-13T08:20:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:20:06","slug":"a-christmas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/13\/a-christmas-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
Throughout the season of Advent \u2013 which this year encompasses the four weeks leading up to December 25 \u2013 we\u2019re looking at classic Christmas movies and how they might connect us to the miracle of God choosing to become a human being.<\/em>

When A Christmas Story<\/em> opened in theaters at Thanksgiving in 1983, critic Roger Ebert made this prediction: \u201cEither nobody will go see it, or millions of people will go see it.\u201d
 
Was he right?  Yes and yes.  The film did only modestly well at the box office.  Ironically, it was out of theaters before Christmas Day. 
 
But cable TV has saved many a Christmas movie from the dustbin of history.  Thanks to their 24-hour marathons on December 24-25 each year, the Turner network stations TBS and TNT have helped transform A Christmas Story<\/em> into must-see holiday viewing for millions of families. 
 
The movie is a patchwork quilt of memories from the childhood of the late Hoosier humorist Jean Shepherd.  As the voiceover of the grown-up Ralphie, he looks back on a series of events leading up to Christmas from a nine-year-old kid\u2019s perspective in 1940 Indiana.  He makes a cameo appearance, by the way, as the man who accosts Ralphie for trying to cut in line to see the department store Santa.
 
Shepherd\u2019s humor is like the sweet and sour sauce at the Chinese restaurant in the film\u2019s final scene.  He can pour on both heartwarming nostalgia and biting satire.  The film swings from scenes that make us think, \u201cWow, that was a great time to be alive,\u201d to vignettes that remind us how good it is to live in a day in which adorning a Christmas tree with electric lights doesn\u2019t risk setting the house on fire. 
 
There are myriad memorable screen moments. 
 
There\u2019s Ralphie\u2019s friend Flick yielding to a \u201ctriple-dog-dare\u201d by putting his tongue on the freezing flagpole; the neighbor\u2019s dogs running off with the Christmas turkey; Ralphie and his brother trembling before Scut Farkus, the local bully, only to discover he\u2019s a coward; and Ralphie\u2019s dad, played by Darren McGavin, thrilled beyond measure to receive the gift of a hideous leg lamp, then displaying it in the front window of the house for everyone to see. 
 
The role of the father (or \u201cthe old man,\u201d as Ralphie calls him) was originally offered to Jack Nicholson.  We can only imagine the dialogue that would have resulted:
 
Ralphie: Tell me about Santa Claus<\/em>.
Old Man:  You want answers?<\/em>
Ralphie:  I want the truth!<\/em>
Old Man:  You can\u2019t handle the truth!<\/em>
 
Ralphie, like a lot of sons of Greatest Generation dads, doesn\u2019t enjoy a particularly close relationship with his father.  But they share a wonderful moment after all the presents have been opened on Christmas Day.  Ralphie has spent the entire movie fantasizing about just one gift: a Red Ryder 200-shot range model air rifle.  Everyone tells him, \u201cYou\u2019ll shoot your eye out, kid.\u201d  He feels deflated when he realizes there\u2019s no BB gun waiting for him underneath the tree.
 
But his old man, with surprising warmth, directs him to a final package, hidden just out of sight.  It\u2019s the Red Ryder of his dreams.  His father had listened to him and understood his feelings after all.  Who would have guessed?
 
I will never forget the year that our family sat down to Christmas dinner.  My father, quite out of character, suggested that maybe there was one more gift that hadn\u2019t been opened.  It was protruding out of his shirt pocket.  Tickets to the Indianapolis \u201c500.\u201d<\/em>  My very first race.  Dad wanted that moment to be special.  It remains one of the happiest memories I have of relating to a man who was notoriously hard to love and understand. 
 
When it comes to opening presents in A Christmas Story<\/em>, the low moment comes when Ralphie opens the box from his Aunt Clara.
 
It\u2019s a pink bunny suit.  His mother insists that he try it on.  Ralphie is mortified.  Little brother Randy bursts into laughter.  \u201cIt\u2019s a pink nightmare,\u201d his father says, once again mercifully taking Ralphie\u2019s side.  Here\u2019s the classic scene:  A Christmas Story: Bunny Pajamas (Clip) | TBS – YouTube<\/a>
 
Most of us, as kids, were on the receiving end of memorable gifts from older family members.   
 
Sometimes they scored direct hits.  \u201cThanks, Grandma, this is great!\u201d  But more often than not the gifts from our grandparents and the aunts and uncles who didn\u2019t really know us weren\u2019t with it<\/em>.  As my own grandparents got older, their gifts became increasingly odd.  My brothers and I often rolled our eyes as we gazed upon gadgets that were technologically behind the curve and clothes that were culturally tone-deaf. 
 
A generation later, my own kids sometimes rolled their eyes when they opened \u201cgrandparent gifts.\u201d  It was always an adventure to see what my mom and dad, in their later years, chose to gift-wrap.  My parents used to be so with it<\/em>.  Then they became\u2026just like their own parents.
 
And I\u2019m next. 
 
Mary Sue and I adore our nine grandchildren.  Even though we can\u2019t imagine this ever happening to us<\/em>, the day will surely come that our grandchildren will roll their eyes at our sincere but goofy attempts to express our affection for them.
 
For a number of reasons I\u2019d love to relive my childhood Christmases.  Mostly I\u2019d love to go back and not roll my eyes. 
 
These days I realize, more than ever, that my grandparents were trying so hard.  I wish I could go back to offer them gratitude, humility, and tenderness beyond my years.
 
And as I inevitably lose my sense of being with it<\/em> \u2013 if indeed I ever had it \u2013 I hope that the one thing I can always offer to the generations that follow is the gift of grace.
 
And that I can triple-dog-dare myself to do so even when it\u2019s not Christmas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Throughout the season of Advent \u2013 which this year encompasses the four weeks leading up to December 25 \u2013 we\u2019re looking at classic Christmas movies and how they might connect us to the miracle of God choosing to become a human being. When A Christmas Story opened in theaters at Thanksgiving in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[539],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2213,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions\/2213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}