# Non-US Dopers, Have You Seen The Movie 'A Christmas Story'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857 "2019-12-14T16:52:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/61 "2019-12-17T18:28:02Z")
Australian, have lived in the US for 12 years, never seen it and no desire/intention to. I vaguely grok some references, e.g., a lamp shaped like a leg? Is that the one? I’ve also never seen _It’s a Wonderful Life_, seems way too schmaltzy and old-fashioned to appeal to me. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/62 "2019-12-17T18:31:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Though I’d say the biggest difference is that _It’s a Wonderful Life_ is heartwarming and upbeat (even with some pretty dark subject matter), while A Christmas Story is rather cynical and melancholy. The vignettes in the former always end on an upbeat note. I never really found Christmas Story to be cynical. It doesn’t hammer you over the head, but the story is really about the importance of family. Similar to Christmas Vacation. Everything can go wrong, but in the end, you still love each other. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/63 "2019-12-17T18:54:12Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m a little resentful that so many Americans discovered the movie. I remember my dad listening to Jean Shepard on the radio. I remember that voice on the radio. When I discovered a movie that he narrated based on his stories it felt like finding a hidden gem. It wasn’t very popular when it came out. It came out a few years before my father died and I was able to share it with him. It was our thing. And then the popularity grew due to cable TV without anyone really knowing who Jean Shepard was. Here is an obligatory link: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/GkicEleOiTM/maxresdefault.jpg "Jean Shepherd - "A Christmas Story"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkicEleOiTM) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/64 "2019-12-17T19:30:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Though I’d say the biggest difference is that _It’s a Wonderful Life_ is heartwarming and upbeat (even with some pretty dark subject matter), while A Christmas Story is rather cynical and melancholy. I get glurge-overload from xmas. That’s why my favorite xmas movie is _Bad Santa_. Wholesome-Shmolesome. Happy Holidays, **T**. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/65 "2019-12-17T20:40:24Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > There are two very specific cultural tags that date the film. > > (1) The Wizard of Oz characters (that are dressed just like the movie versions) mean that the film is at the very earliest 1939. > > (2) The Little Orphan Annie radio program ran from 1931-1942. > > So early 40s seems reasonable, probably pre-Pearl Harbor (after which, discussion of the war would be hard to avoid). > > But yeah, I’m no good at identifying car makes or other specific items that are part of the production design. I put it at 1940 because of the LOA decoder ring which was about then. If it was Christmas 1941 the was would have surely come up. > [@Doug\_K](#): > > Well, the stories that the movie was taken from were told as being from various times in “Ralphie’s” childhood. For instance, the Bumpus’s dogs eating the turkey took place at Thanksgiving in the original story. I have the books it was based on and remember the Bumpas’ dogs destroying an Easter ham. I’ll have to go back and check. In any event, the book-Ralphie mentioned the Bumpases renting the house next door for only about six months before leaving it a wreck. Reading between the lines, they probably never paid the rent and it took the landlord that long to evict them. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/66 "2019-12-17T21:00:12Z")
I doubt very much that this movie would be shown on mainstream British TV, since it appears to be about wanting a (toy?) gun as a present. I certainly don’t remember seeing it, or even hearing it mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/67 "2019-12-17T21:23:42Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I have the books it was based on and remember the Bumpas’ dogs destroying an Easter ham. I’ll have to go back and check. Yes. It is in _Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/68 "2019-12-17T21:29:08Z")
South African, never seen it, but I think I’ve seen clips - of some spectacled kid? Is there a BB gun involved? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/69 "2019-12-17T21:39:43Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > South African, never seen it, but I think I’ve seen clips - of some spectacled kid? Is there a BB gun involved? An official Red Ryder carbine-action two hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/70 "2019-12-17T21:40:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > South African, never seen it, but I think I’ve seen clips - of some spectacled kid? Is there a BB gun involved? Yes. I really like it. I don’t think I could watch it _every_ year (I like _The Ref_ as a Christmas movie), but it’s funny. I love Darren McGavin. It has a slightly gritty feel. I _adore_ Jean Shepherd’s voice. He narrated several _American Playhouse_ TV plays on PBS decades ago. James Broderick (Matthew’s dad) played the Old Man. Good stuff. Oh, and I hate glurgy Christmas stories. What is this Snowman thingie people are mentioning? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/71 "2019-12-17T21:45:51Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I doubt very much that this movie would be shown on mainstream British TV, since it appears to be about wanting a (toy?) gun as a present. I certainly don’t remember seeing it, or even hearing it mentioned. Rest assured, he absolutely regrets this Christmas present that ends violent and bloody. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/72 "2019-12-17T21:55:43Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If you’ve watched any American tv that was broadcast in the UK for the last 50 years I’m sure you’ve seen episodes based on It’s a Wonderful Life. Second only to Scrooge as being recycled for Christmas episode plots. I definitely have, yeah, but I’ve never seen the actual movie. And also there might have been references I didn’t pick up on. I just looked up when It’s a Wonderful Life has been used in movies and there were loads I hadn’t noticed, like Home Alone. To me, Kevin was just a kid who for some reason liked old black and white movies; I probably didn’t even notice that he wasn’t still watching the same black and white movie that had a shoot out. There was no subtle message that Kevin would eventually decide home was fine to be in after all (which going on other movie references is the message of IAWL). It’s such a big cultural touchstone in the US, and the US is such a huge market, that the film/show makers either don’t know it doesn’t mean much to everyone else, or don’t think it matters, and they’re probably sort of right about the latter. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/73 "2019-12-17T22:00:30Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I doubt very much that this movie would be shown on mainstream British TV, since it appears to be about wanting a (toy?) gun as a present. I certainly don’t remember seeing it, or even hearing it mentioned. Banned by the government? Or just not shown, the decision made by the networks? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/74 "2019-12-17T22:15:56Z")
The bigger networks probably wouldn’t show it, but that would be their own decision, not a government ban. It might show up on cable, though. One of the classic movie channels, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/75 "2019-12-17T22:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **BigT** : > > Other than nostalgia for an earlier time (which doesn’t apply to most viewers today as they are too young), I don’t actually get what people like about A Christmas Story\*. I would love to find out, though. We’ve all lived through that earlier time. The time when the movie is set isn’t really 1940, or 1935, or whatever. The time when the movie is set is 10 years old. That’s what people are nostalgic for: Their childhood, whatever year the calendars happened to say at the time. **eburacum45** , a BB gun isn’t exactly a “toy gun”, but it isn’t exactly a “real gun”, either. You can kill birds or other small animals with one, and if you shoot a human, it’ll hurt pretty bad, and maybe injure them (like, say, shooting an eye out), but unless everything goes just exactly wrong, you’re not going to kill a person with one. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/76 "2019-12-17T22:39:33Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I get glurge-overload from xmas. That’s why my favorite xmas movie is _Bad Santa_. Wholesome-Shmolesome. > > Happy Holidays, **T**. I also recommend _The Ref_, unless you have an aversion to Denis Leary. Or Kevin Spacey, I guess. _The Ice Harvest_ is pretty good, too. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/77 "2019-12-17T22:55:27Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I definitely have, yeah, but I’ve never seen the actual movie. > > And also there might have been references I didn’t pick up on. I just looked up when It’s a Wonderful Life has been used in movies and there were loads I hadn’t noticed, like Home Alone. To me, Kevin was just a kid who for some reason liked old black and white movies; I probably didn’t even notice that he wasn’t still watching the same black and white movie that had a shoot out. There was no subtle message that Kevin would eventually decide home was fine to be in after all (which going on other movie references is the message of IAWL). > > It’s such a big cultural touchstone in the US, and the US is such a huge market, that the film/show makers either don’t know it doesn’t mean much to everyone else, or don’t think it matters, and they’re probably sort of right about the latter. How it became a cultural touchstone is pretty weird. It was pretty well acclaimed at the time of its release. It was nominated as best picture. It lost to the superior and more important film _The Best Year’s of Our Lives_. But no one went to see it. Ok that’s an exaggeration. It did lose money when it was released. How it became popular and traditional to watch for many is because in the 70s and 80s the copyright lapsed and it became public domain. Just as cable tv was rapidly expanding. Every local and cable channel could throw it on as part of their holiday programming. By the time the copyright was reestablished in the 90s it had reached traditional status. Those circumstances are pretty unique to the US. If you are able to enjoy a movie within the context of when it was made you might want to give it a try. Despite it’s sappy ending the movie is fucking dark. I’ve seen speculation that Stewart let his PTSD come out to show his collapse. He’s pretty great in it. If you don’t fall in love with Donna Reed while watching it your heart is made of stone. And if you think about the ending the bad guy well doesn’t exactly win but he sure as hell doesn’t lose. He steals all of George’s money and gets away with it. Personally I don’t watch it anymore due to overexposure but I do appreciate what it does well. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/78 "2019-12-17T23:49:52Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And if you think about the ending the bad guy well doesn’t exactly win but he sure as hell doesn’t lose. He steals all of George’s money and gets away with it. What, you haven’t seen the [lost ending](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw89o0afb2A)? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/79 "2019-12-18T00:05:13Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > How it became a cultural touchstone is pretty weird. It was pretty well acclaimed at the time of its release. It was nominated as best picture. It lost to the superior and more important film _The Best Year’s of Our Lives_. But no one went to see it. Ok that’s an exaggeration. It did lose money when it was released. > > How it became popular and traditional to watch for many is because in the 70s and 80s the copyright lapsed and it became public domain. Just as cable tv was rapidly expanding. Every local and cable channel could throw it on as part of their holiday programming. By the time the copyright was reestablished in the 90s it had reached traditional status. Those circumstances are pretty unique to the US. > > If you are able to enjoy a movie within the context of when it was made you might want to give it a try. Despite it’s sappy ending the movie is fucking dark. I’ve seen speculation that Stewart let his PTSD come out to show his collapse. He’s pretty great in it. If you don’t fall in love with Donna Reed while watching it your heart is made of stone. And if you think about the ending the bad guy well doesn’t exactly win but he sure as hell doesn’t lose. He steals all of George’s money and gets away with it. Personally I don’t watch it anymore due to overexposure but I do appreciate what it does well. I’d have to order a DVD, though. It’s not on Netflix or Amazon Prime in the UK, and doesn’t seem to be being shown on TV from the listings I could find. It might be on a channel I don’t have and that for some reason didn’t come up in my searches. And hooking up my DVD player is an arse these days. Though when searching for whether it will be on TV, I came across many articles from newspapers based in the UK acclaiming IAWL as a Christmas classic that everyone watches. I think they must have just reused copy from the US, or it was written by someone who’s spent most of their time in America, because that’s simply untrue in the UK. If you stopped people in the street, almost all of them wouldn’t have a clue what it was, and fewer of the ones who knew it was a movie would actually have watched it. Even fewer of them would have watched it as a kid and associate it with Christmas, as a tradition, they’d just have watched it because it was referenced and they put in the effort. I’m not denigrating the movie itself, btw - I mean, I haven’t even seen it, and James Stewart is usually good. It would be interesting to watch, because the snippets that I’ve seen in movies and heard referenced to don’t actually tell you an awful lot about the movie. I know the general theme from looking it up years ago. So it would almost be like coming to it as a new viewer. Give it twenty years and A Christmas Story might be getting the same treatment. Though if it involves a kid wanting a BB gun then yeah, that would put people off 😃 Not for any political reasons, it just wouldn’t resonate. I mean, kids do have pretend guns here but they’re not generally a hugely popular item on a kid’s letter to Santa. An aside - do many Americans watch the Christmas Film [The Snowman?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowman) I think it worked well in other countries (someone else above mentioned it) and it’s an animation that doesn’t have much dialogue, so would work well in other languages. It’s not on the level of IAWL here, but it’s close. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857/80 "2019-12-18T00:43:05Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I’d have to order a DVD, though. It’s not on Netflix or Amazon Prime in the UK, and doesn’t seem to be being shown on TV from the listings I could find. It might be on a channel I don’t have and that for some reason didn’t come up in my searches. And hooking up my DVD player is an arse these days. > > Though when searching for whether it will be on TV, I came across many articles from newspapers based in the UK acclaiming IAWL as a Christmas classic that everyone watches. I think they must have just reused copy from the US, or it was written by someone who’s spent most of their time in America, because that’s simply untrue in the UK. If you stopped people in the street, almost all of them wouldn’t have a clue what it was, and fewer of the ones who knew it was a movie would actually have watched it. Even fewer of them would have watched it as a kid and associate it with Christmas, as a tradition, they’d just have watched it because it was referenced and they put in the effort. > > I’m not denigrating the movie itself, btw - I mean, I haven’t even seen it, and James Stewart is usually good. > > It would be interesting to watch, because the snippets that I’ve seen in movies and heard referenced to don’t actually tell you an awful lot about the movie. I know the general theme from looking it up years ago. So it would almost be like coming to it as a new viewer. > > Give it twenty years and A Christmas Story might be getting the same treatment. Though if it involves a kid wanting a BB gun then yeah, that would put people off 😃 Not for any political reasons, it just wouldn’t resonate. I mean, kids do have pretend guns here but they’re not generally a hugely popular item on a kid’s letter to Santa. > > An aside - do many Americans watch the Christmas Film [The Snowman?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowman) I think it worked well in other countries (someone else above mentioned it) and it’s an animation that doesn’t have much dialogue, so would work well in other languages. It’s not on the level of IAWL here, but it’s close. From what I can gather Paramount owns the distribution rights. In the US television network NBC has the broadcasting rights and now its only shown once a year on Christmas Eve. Since it’s not well known there it’s probably too expensive to show on tv. I can’t speak for all Americans but I’ve never heard of The Snowman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-have-you-seen-the-movie-a-christmas-story/844857.md?page=5)