# The movie "A Christmas Story": Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627 "2011-12-09T15:50:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/81 "2011-12-13T07:49:39Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > voted “Love It!” > > It was released before I was old enough to watch movies, but it was always on cable by the time I was. > > There’s just so much to like - The heavy nostalgia (the decorations in the home are very much like the decor was in my Grandparent’s home, back in the 80s. Yeah, the movie is set in the 40s, but my Grandparents are old so 80s for them wasn’t too far off 40s for Ralphie.) > > Plus a few of the jokes just land hard, and always will: > > “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuudge!” “Except I didn’t say fudge.” > > Ralphie desperately climbing back up to Santa after being too shocked to deny the football that the Mall Santa suggested. The boot in the face seals it. Genius. > > “Frah-gee-lay! Must be Italian.” > > Teacher and mother, in Ralphie’s imagination, in costume: “You’ll shoot your eye out! You’ll shoot your eye out!” > > Ralphie snapping and rushing Farkus. That stupid little toadie being too shocked to act. > > I don’t know if they do it anymore, but for a while TNT was showing 24 hours of “A Christmas Story”, back-to-back, on repeat. I used to love that day, I’d pop in to watch a bit over and over. Now I’ve got the DVD, but I still always watch it around Christmas. Just a great understated movie. Actually, it’s TBS, TNT’s sister network. And yes, they will be doing their annual 24 hour marathon of “A Christmas Story” beginning on the evening of the 24th. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/82 "2011-12-13T15:27:08Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > voted “Love It!” > > It was released before I was old enough to watch movies, but it was always on cable by the time I was. > > … > > I don’t know if they do it anymore, but for a while TNT was showing 24 hours of “A Christmas Story”, back-to-back, on repeat. I used to love that day, I’d pop in to watch a bit over and over. Now I’ve got the DVD, but I still always watch it around Christmas. Just a great understated movie. > [@cochrane](#): > > Actually, it’s TBS, TNT’s sister network. And yes, they will be doing their annual 24 hour marathon of “A Christmas Story” beginning on the evening of the 24th. actually the 24 hour showing started on TNT and then moved to TBS. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/83 "2011-12-13T15:37:02Z")
I’ve always liked the movie, but I think it’s a bit over-exposed (especially with the stupid 24 hour marathon.) I like to see it every couple of year, but certainly don’t want to see it multiple times a day or have it quoted and referenced ad infinitum. (Come to think of it, the same could honestly be said for most movies I like.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/84 "2011-12-13T15:43:18Z")
I liked the stories better. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/85 "2011-12-13T17:29:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I liked the stories better. “Leopold Doppler and the Great Orpheum Gravy Boat Riot.” Once read aloud that to my dad and several other old guys in the same hospital ward as him. It’s dangerous to make old people laugh that much. ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/86 "2011-12-13T22:44:29Z")
I hate it. There is something about 50s nostalgia that grates on me. I hate the show _Happy Days_ for similar reasons, although the kid in the Christmas movie annoys me a lot more than little opie cunningham ever did. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/87 "2011-12-13T23:15:42Z")
itsnotfiftiesnostalgiaforpotatossakewhenwillpeoplestopsayingthatifitwasthefiftiestheywouldhavehadtvnotradioarglefrastersodacracker ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/88 "2011-12-13T23:25:44Z")
Love it. Great story, great lines (“Only I didn’t say ‘fudge’”), and best of all, it was filmed (though not set) in my native Cleveland. The opening scene is Public Square, and the department store where Ralphie sees his Object of Desire, and meets Santa, is Higbee’s, a northern Ohio institution. (Alas, sadly gone). My Mom loves it because she grew up in Western Cleveland, and while she went to Catholic school, she knew kids who went to Warren G. Harding. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/89 "2011-12-14T01:21:00Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > actually the 24 hour showing started on TNT and then moved to TBS. Yes, the move was part of a programming decision that TBS should focus on comedy (very funny) and TNT should focus on drama (we know drama), how TBS still occasionally airing baseball figures into this, I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/90 "2011-12-14T01:48:06Z")
Hate it, Spending Christmas with that family would be a hundred times worse than the worst Christmas of my life. Why would I want to do that? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/91 "2011-12-14T02:21:27Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > Hate it, Spending Christmas with that family would be a hundred times worse than the worst Christmas of my life. Why would I want to do that? It used to really suck to be a kid. This movie illustrates that quite nicely. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that people can’t relate to that so much these days. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627/92 "2011-12-14T02:45:54Z")
Most of my family likes it but I’m in the middle. It’s just too long. Or maybe it feels that way after 24 hours. I’d admit, I’m snarky and I’d much rather watch 24 hours of “Christmas Vacation” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-a-christmas-story-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/605627.md?page=4)