5th Day of Christmas: A Christmas Story

Welcome to HackerLab.net’s countdown to Christmas! The 12 Days of Christmas are here!

On the 5th Day until Christmas, we are watching:

A Christmas Carol. We watch this every year in my house. It has a little extra meaning for us since Jedite was involved with our local production of A Christmas Story when we first met. A Christmas Story is based off of short stories and, I think, a book by Jean Shephard. Most of the actors in this film I don’t recall seeing in any other shows or movies. Which sort of makes this movie feel iconic to me. A little more believable and heartwarming. I love how the movie doesn’t feature a perfect family with 2.5 kids, a Mom and Dad, and just the perfect life with perfectly obediant children. HA! The children get into trouble, don’t listen, they fight with each other, and swear. Oh, and they get their friends into the worst trouble! The Dad swears, the Mom is a little… ditzy, but sweet and caring, and his brother is annoying. Ah, family at the Holidays.

The basic premise of the movie follows a little boy Ralphie and his quest for the perfect Christmas present, a Red Rider BB Gun! He asks his Mom and mentions it to his teacher during an assignment and they both say the same thing, “You’ll shoot your eye out.” We see into his mind and his fantasies about how to get it, what will happen once he does, etc. It is a cute look at the life of a little boy during Christmas. Christmas comes and he gets some horrendous gifts (a giant pink bunny costume/pjs to name one), but his Dad comes through and he finally gets his BB gun. What does he do? Shoots his gun and gets nabbed by a ricochet. Oh well. He didn’t shoot his eye out, but he did break his glasses. A story I know all to well. He comes up with a lie his Mom believes and all is well.

A nice family movie for the Holidays.

Oh, it also has one of the most racist scenes in a Holiday movie. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra ra-ra-ra-ra!