I’m so happy about this that I may do the Snoopy dance when I finish this post.
There is no better way to escape the folks then with a TV marathon of the same film running over and over again. 2 am and I can’t sleep? I’ll watch a kid licking a flagpole.
6:37 am and some jerk has woken me up? Dad’ll be unwrapping a lamp made from a leg. It’ll be the best Christmas ever!
Go ahead, watch the entire marathon. I triple dog-dare ya!
Heh. They’ve done this every year for quite a while now.
Everybody listen! Especially you, Barbarian! Do not get excited or feel happy about the Christmas Story marathon. If you do get excited about it, don’t share that excitement with anyone. You see, they’ve done this every year for quite a while now, so no one wants to hear from you about it!
Here’s something you may not know: in Jean Shepard’s original story, the kid really DOES shoot his eye out after getting the rifle!
That was a “heh!” not a “meh.”
And it’s a major award!
“Fra-Gil-E?” Must be Italian. 
Did he blame the Lifebuoy, and make his parents really sorry?
“It was…soap…poisoning!!!”
Sonsabitchin’…Bumpusses!
What I love about the marathon is that I never have to watch the whole movie. Over the course of 24 hours, I can flip to the channel every now and then and always catch the highlights, and the only parts I really want to see–kid in movement-inhibiting snowsuit, flagpole-licking, leg-lamp, “fa ra ra ra ra”, and “Always drink your ovaltine.”
And in between, I will sit and watch my DVD of Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. 
There is someone I work with on rare occasion whose last name is Bumpus. Dear God, I can’t help but think internally (EVERY TIME I SEE HER NAME) that exact quote.
Since I don’t have cable, I went out and bought the DVD last year. It’s about time to watch it again!
Love. This. Movie. Own it, but it’s still worth watching half a dozen times on Christmas Eve. Where else would I have learned the name of the Lone Ranger’s nephew’s horse?
I like the Tin Man.
No, he doesn’t.
Note there was a sequel done- “MY Summer story”- but without the great cast. It was OK, and for Shepard fans, it is worth tracking down.
And there were 4 “Made for TV” movies of Shepards works.
Yeah.
HO!-HO!-HO!
We’ve taken the totally redundant step of buying the DVD so we can can watch, uninterrupted by commercials and in the full glory of Cinemascope™ Okay, regular widescreen but still.
I got my introduction to Jean Shepherd when my fifth grade english teacher read Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters. <wistful sigh> I wonder where my old Daisy BB gun is.
Show me how the piggies eat!
Some men are Baptists, others Catholics, my father was an oldsmobile man.
Normally when he talked to you, you felt all warm and fuzzy inside. But mostly he just hit you.
Heh heh. I cannot think of this movie without smelling pine, as it was my tradition to watch it every year while setting up my tree. To this day, I cannot hear the horn motif from Peter and the Wolf without getting the urge to past a string of lights over the top of a tree. Nor can I hang a little silver drum unless I hear the words “Daddy’s going to kill Ralphie!” first.