Dating A Christmas Story

There’s a thread on this somewhere, but it’s probably better to start a new thread. (I’d resurrect an Easter thread, though.)

When is A Christmas Story set? The Red Ryder BB gun came out in 1938 (and is still in production.) The latest cars I see are from 1948. The family are looking for a Christmas tree, and The Old Man mentions ‘one of those new plastic trees’. Brush-bristle artificial trees came out in 1930, but the Wiki article doesn’t have a date for the introduction of plastic trees.

I know that the era is intentionally obscure, but what’s the consensus?

Doesn’t matter how much you date it, it’s not going to put out.

Same answer I’d frequently get as a copy-editor: “The audience doesn’t care.” Which is really a euphemism for “The creative team doesn’t care, at least not enough to put in the kind of work it would take to get it right.”

I don’t think it’s a matter of not getting it “right,” it’s a matter of not changing the story to avoid inconsistencies with real life.

Search old news stories to find out if anybody ever swallowed a yoyo.

To me, this is like a story from Lake Wobegon. It’s set “back then” in our younger days.

There were Wizard of Oz characters in the parade. The movie came out in 1936, and it wasn’t shown on television until 1959, so for them be in the parade that must have been in 1936 or so, but from other indications it couldn’t have been.

I’m voting for intentionally anachronistic. You’re listening to the adult Ralphie remembering his youth, and he doesn’t get it all right.

Yeah, like he’s mashing several Christmases into one.

The clothes, hairstyles, and the school room look like late 40’s/early 50’s to me. And the general air of prosperity – that gives it a post-war feel rather than late 30’s/early 40’s.

An interesting (to me) thing about that time period is that I can relate to it very well even though I was born in ‘58 and the period is closer to my parents’ childhood days. My wife, on the other hand, born in 1968 cannot relate as well.

It seems to me that life from 1945 to 1965 was much more similar than different, but by 1975 it was quite a different world.

Nope–the Wizard of Oz came out in 1939.

It doesn’t look post-WWII to me, and there’s no mention of the war, so I always figured it was either Christmas of 1939 or 1940.

But you (and others) are correct. There are many anachronisms.

It’s an abstract “childhood” era, not one from which a consistent date can be inferred from the details.

Doesn’t Scut Farkus have a coonskin cap? That would be the 50’s, would it not? But it’s not yet the television era. Everybody still listens to radio dramas.

Given that the movie mashes about a dozen of Jean’s stories together, it’s not surprising that the era is “back then.”

For what it’s worth, the Little Orphan Annie radio show ran from 1930-1942. Ovaltine was the sponsor from 1930-1940. That would seem to place the movie within those ten years.

It does have a post-war feel to it, (men appear to be home, families are prospering, no mention is ever made of it) so maybe right around 1940 would be accurate.

I saw a long thread about this somewhere, but can’t find it now. Wikipedia will have to do.

As I recall, there are several elements that date the story in contradictory fashion, the coonskin cap being the latest in date, as Dio says, from sometime in the 50s. But the decoder and the license plate on the family car were both from 1940.

Here is a thread from last year that discusses the question at length. I think the aforementioned license plate on the car is the most solid piece of evidence that the “actual” year can’t be any earlier than 1940.

That’s actually an acceptable explanation, even to a fussy stickler like me. It takes place in the Nostalgia Universe, so don’t worry about it!

…However, in general, I still think historical dramas should take more care than they do to try to avoid such distractions.

Doesn’t Ralphie speculate that the LOA secret code might involve hunting Nazi subs?

FWIW, the older members of my clan agree that no woman of that era would have a hairstyle like Ralphie’s mother.

It’s too dry and fly-away, isn’t it? Could be a bad home perm.

The hairstyle I’ve never understood is the mom’s in That 70’s Show. I’ve never sat through an entire episode, so maybe her hair’s supposed to be part of the funny.

ETA: I just now got the pun in the OP. Good one!

The film cannot be dated accurately. It has a song from 1943 on the radio but yet Ovaltine didn’t sponsor Little Orphan Annie after 1940. The film’s writer/producer, Bob Clark (RIP, guy was a genius), said it wasn’t set in any specific year several times.

Unless he’s from Kentucky…?