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1* AccidentalInnuendo: Not helped by the fact that it's Farkus ordering Ralphie around.
2--> "Listen, jerk! When I tell you to come, you better ''come''."
3* AdaptationDisplacement: Creator/JeanShepherd left behind a vast body of other work about his childhood, but only diehard fans are even aware of it, or of his long career as a radio personality. It's also almost completely ignored (most notably in the DVD commentary) that ''Film/AChristmasStory'' is the third screen adaptation from the Ralphie Parker stories, following the made-for-TV movies ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpenHearth'' (1976) and ''Film/TheGreatAmericanFourthOfJulyAndOtherDisasters'' (1982), both of which had elements filtered into this film. Shepherd would bring Ralphie to the screen three more times, in the TV movies ''Film/TheStarCrossedRomanceOfJosephineCosnowski'' (1985) and ''Film/OllieHopnoodlesHavenOfBliss'' (1988) and the theatrical ''Film/ItRunsInTheFamily'' (1994), although his death mercifully prevented any involvement in the almost completely hated ''Film/AChristmasStory2''.
4* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
5** Were the Higbee's Santa and his elves being harsh towards Ralphie and the other kids because they were just {{Jerkass}}es, or were they just really tired and ready for the store to close so their shift can end?
6** One interpretation of the Chinese restaurant scene suggests the carolers were slipping into JapaneseRanguage on purpose as a bit, either to get a rise out of their boss or to cheer up the Parkers after their Christmas dinner was ruined (when he suggests they pick another song, they switch to the also L-heavy "Jingle Bells"). This is supported by the fact that their boss pronounces his L’s normally. Another point in favor of that theory is that they are at a ''Chinese'' restaurant, and both of the two native languages spoken by a large majority of Chinese-born immigrants, Mandarin and Cantonese, each in their standard accent have a "la" initial sound similar to the English one, and there is no reason to think they all would accidentally mistake it for a "ra" initial. The reverse, mistaking an "r" for an "l" would be more likely since the "r's" are realized quite differently in many regions from English. Of course, they could be speaking a Chinese minority dialect which realizes the "l" sound differently, or from a region where the sounds are realized differently.
7** When Ralphie is finally fed up with Scut Farkus and starts to beat him up, how much of that was truly legit? Did that actually happen or was that what Ralphie wanted to have happened and he was stretching the truth? For what it's worth, Jean Shepherd's original telling of the story was framed by the grown-up Ralph and Flick both happily reminiscing about the beatdown, indicating that it indeed did take place (though Grover Dill was the recipient in the book, as Scut Farkus had yet to be introduced in Shepherd's tales). ''Film/AChristmasStoryChristmas'' further locks it up when Scut cites Ralphie's buttkicking as the event that made him rethink his bullying ways and get his act together.
8** Was the Old Man really distracted about the Bears by Ralphie's mom, or did he read the room and decide that she handled it and to bring it up now would upset Ralphie?
9* AluminumChristmasTrees:
10** There really ''are'' Red Ryder BB guns, although (at least [[TheRedStapler at the time of the film]]) none matching the ''exact'' description given; the compass and sundial were instead features of the Buck Jones Daisy model.
11** Also for some, Lifebuoy soap. While they don't advertise like they used to (they used to sponsor ads at several baseball stadiums, which tended to get vandalized), it's been continually produced since 1895. In the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic Covid-19]] era, the brand name has also been applied to hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes.
12** While it's most associated with this movie, the "Drink More Ovaltine" ring decoded message was a very real thing that dates all the way back to the 1930s. And now Ovaltine is [[https://www.facebook.com/OvaltineUSA/app_605197776211854 cross-promoting with the movie]].
13* AmericansHateTingle: Interestingly, while it's beloved in the US and Canada, the film has largely been overlooked in the UK, while other Hollywood Christmas comedies of the last few decades (''Film/{{Elf}}'', ''Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation'', ''Film/HomeAlone'', ''Film/TheSantaClause'', ''Film/{{Scrooged}}'') are just as popular there as they are in North America. This might have something to do with a lack of big-name stars, and the British public perhaps not being very familiar with the Creator/NormanRockwell type of mid-century American Christmas that gets parodied here.
14* AudienceColoringAdaptation: Jean Shepherd's tales involving the Parker family cover almost every aspect of Ralphie's childhood and adolescence, but due to this movie's famous reputation, many people are under the impression that his entire body of work is centered around Christmastime nostalgia. In truth, the "Red Ryder" bit is pretty much the ''only'' one of Shepherd's stories that the holiday prominently figures into (even the other plot threads in the movie are taken from different vignettes that don't feature Christmas in any way).
15* AwardSnub:
16** Didn't get any sniff at all from the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, but since it was filmed largely in Canada and technically was an American-Canadian co-production, it was nominated for a bunch of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Awards Genie Awards]]. Bob Clark won Best Director and the screenplay also won, but it lost in all other categories, including Best Picture, technical awards, and Tedde Moore (Miss Shields) as Supporting Actress.
17** Getting selected for the UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry in 2012 more than made up for any past snubs.
18* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The bunny pajamas scene has nothing to do with the plot and only lasts a few minutes. It’s still one of the most remembered and beloved scenes.
19* CatharsisFactor: Ralphie beating up Scut Farkus. For anyone who's ever been bullied in school, it can be pretty easy to project yourself onto Ralphie as he dishes out some much-deserved payback onto Scut.
20* CommonKnowledge: The idea that the movie and the stories it's based on were meant to be viewed as biographical. By Jean Shepherd's own admission, whatever personal inspiration he drew on for the plot, all the stories of Ralphie and the Parker family are fictional.
21* CriticalDissonance: Most reviewers in 1983 felt it was SoOkayItsAverage, with Creator/RogerEbert being one of the few to give it a rave. He later even added it to his list of Great Movies.
22* CrossesTheLineTwice: Schwartz getting beat by his angry mom would be very alarming, if it weren’t for her sounding like a deranged turkey while doing it.
23* CultClassic: Although now considered a Christmas classic, up until the late-1990s, it was technically considered this, growing an audience due to strong cable exposure and VHS.
24* EnsembleDarkhorse: Jeff Gillen's irascible department-store-Santa makes a strong impression with just a few minutes of screen time.
25* FairForItsDay:
26** On the one hand, Ralphie getting his BB gun is ultimately depicted in a positive way, if only due to his self-serving memory, and he gets away with nearly shooting his eye out with it. On the other, the rest of the movie doesn't even try to pretend that it's ok for a nine-year-old child to be playing with what is otherwise a functional weapon, as evidenced by the fact that, as per warned, he ''almost shoots his eye out with it.''
27** The Chinese restaurant scene might make some viewers wince for its very straight indulgence in AsianSpeekeeEngrish. However, the film also gives the Chinese-American restaurant owner perfect English fluency, and the comedy mostly comes from ''him'' getting annoyed by his staff's thick accents rather than any condescension from Ralphie's family.
28* FanonDiscontinuity: ''A Christmas Story 2'' gets this treatment from virtually everyone. Can qualify as CanonDiscontinuity as well, as in spite of the trailer boasting that it's an "official" sequel, the film is in no way based on any of Jean Shepherd's works, and it was obviously made without his input or blessing (as Shepherd had passed away thirteen years earlier).
29** ''A Christmas Story 2'' itself completely ignores the references and events of the 1994 sequel ''Film/ItRunsInTheFamily''.
30** The Creator/HBOMax sequel, ''A Christmas Story Christmas'', has no connection to ''A Christmas Story 2'', seemingly cementing the latter's CanonDiscontinuity status.
31* HamAndCheese: The main reason the daydream scenes work is because of the actors being as shamelessly hammy as possible.
32* HarsherInHindsight: After the crap poor Schwartz goes through in the movie, those who read Jean Shepherd's original book may find this particular passage near the end rather hard to take:
33-->"Too bad Schwartz couldn’t have been here," I said.\
34Flick grunted, busy with his change counting. We both knew that Schwartz had been shot down over Italy. They never found him.
35* HilariousInHindsight:
36** Surprised that Ralphie doesn't know that's a ''[[{{Film/Elf}} fake Santa]]''.
37** Four years after the release of the film, Creator/MelindaDillon starred in ''Film/HarryAndTheHendersons'', another film that involves a leg lamp as an important plot point. (A Bigfoot foot lamp, that is.)
38** And six years ''before'' the release of this film, Dillon starred in ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', which is also (partly) set in Indiana.
39* HypeBacklash: Understandably, those who didn't grow up with it or discover it on their own terms can often be severely underwhelmed by this low-key, SliceOfLife period comedy that's sometimes hyped up by its fanbase as one of the greatest Christmas movies (or greatest movies, period) ever made. This has only gotten worse since the mainstream caught on and started churning out kitschy [[TheMerch tie-in merch]], to say nothing of the poorly received sequel and TV remake, respectively.
40* ItsPopularNowItSucks: TNT's and later TBS's 24-hour MarathonRunning of the movie each Christmas, and its resulting pop-cultural ubiquity, have generated a mixture of this and HypeBacklash for many.
41* JerkassWoobie: Schwartz. He displays jerkass behavior to Flick over the issue of whether a tongue will stick to a flagpole in the winter and when doing his dares skips the triple dare before the triple dog dare. However, he is the only one to be shown getting physical harm from Scut Farkas, and when Ralphie chickens out regarding whether to tell his mom that he learned the f-word from his father, he chooses to blame Schwartz, who gets an undeserved beating from his mother immediately upon hearing about it.
42* MemeticMolester: Teen Ralphie in ''A Christmas Story 2''. It doesn't help that the entire plot of the movie involves him chasing after a girl, leading to events like him [[PervertedSniffing sniffing her hair]] and [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext fiddling with a mall dummy's brassiere]].
43* MemeticMutation:
44** "You'll shoot your eye out!"
45** "FRAH-GEE-LAY. Must be Italian.",
46** "I ''triple dog dare'' you!",
47** Also notable: "It's a ''[[SeriousBusiness major award!"]]''
48** "NADDAFINGAH!!"
49** Saying "fudge" instead of swearing.
50** The "Drink Your Ovaltine" scene is memetic among AlternateRealityGame players, especially for ones that have a very disappointing ending/solution.
51* OneSceneWonder: Jeff Gillen as the department store Santa Claus. "HOOOO HOOOO HOOOOOOO!"
52* OpinionMyopia: If you even so much as ''imply'' you didn't like this film, expect people who ''do'' like it to rip you to shreds.
53* QuestionableCasting: Among ''A Christmas Story 2'''s other myriad flaws, Creator/DanielStern is just as far off the mark in portraying the Old Man as Creator/CharlesGrodin was in ''Film/ItRunsInTheFamily'', but where Grodin's performance was too low-key compared to Creator/DarrenMcGavin's, Stern is too over-the-top wacky in his hamminess, to the point of coming off as a caricature.
54* SequelDisplacement: Technically. Not many know of the two earlier, Made-for-TV movies that adapted Shepard's other works about the Parker family. Seven years earlier ''Phantom of the Open Hearth'' was released. The year before ''A Christmas Story'' came out, ''The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters'' aired on Creator/{{PBS}}.
55* {{Sequelitis}}: The 2012 DTV sequel has been widely panned, [[FanonDiscontinuity even by fans who forget that it released.]]
56* SlowPacedBeginning: The opening credits sequence aims more for period atmosphere building than plot or character introduction, with the result that it's kinda dull, with long gaps in the narration and very long shots of toys and kids pressing their noses against windows.
57* SpecialEffectFailure: The soap that Ralphie's mouth is washed out with is quite clearly a glossy plastic prop that looks nothing like real soap[[note]]It should be noted that Lifebuoy does have their bars look just as plastic [[https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6EUAAOSwgZ1XssqR/s-l640.jpg in their marketing]] -- the ''real'' bars look nothing like it, though.[[/note]].
58* TearJerker: As awesome as it is to see Ralphie finally fight back against Scut Farkus, it is also quite sad seeing the buildup and the aftermath. Ralphie has been bullied by Scut since the start of the movie, possibly longer, and he already had a bad day when Scut showed up. Then Scut finally pushes him over the edge by mocking him, leading to poor Ralphie snapping and attacking him. Not to mention that he wasn’t easing up on his beatings and swearing under his breath. There’s also Randy’s reaction, which seems to be that of genuine concern for his brother. He had never seen Ralphie so angry before and immediately ran to his mother because he was worried about his brother. And when his mother showed up and pulled him off Scut, he was in tears.
59* ValuesDissonance:
60** The Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant leans heavily into the AsianSpeekeeEngrish trope for comedy, something that you could still get away with in the 1980s. However, it might also be considered rather FairForItsDay.
61** While toy guns have always been controversial (the alleged inspiration for the original story was an encounter with a woman wearing an anti-toy gun pin in the early 1960s), a nine-year-old having a toy gun that both looks realistic and is ''functional'' ([[WeaponJr if ineffective]]) would be all but out of the question in a post-UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} world. Although this does carry over into modern-day values dissonance, as kids owning BB guns is still a rather common thing (the Red Ryder still sells like hotcakes, at least in part thanks to this very film) outside of large cities and suburbs, where kids have enough open space to safely use one. In contrast to the time period depicted in the story, however, it ''is'' now widely acknowledged even by parents who approve of airguns that they are not to be thought of or treated as "toys".
62** These days, most families wouldn't [[SoapPunishment wash a kid's mouth out with soap]] for saying a swear word, partially due to the fact of soap poisoning being an ''actual'' possibility depending on the kind of soap. The worst a parent might do these days is give the child a stern talking-to about why the word in question is bad, not to mention would be quicker to blame themselves for not watching their mouths in front of their children.
63** When Ralphie blames Schwartz for a swear word he said, we listen to Schwartz's mother scream at the top of her lungs and begin beating her son over the phone, while he yells "What'd I do?!?" Ralphie's mother visibly recoils in shock, but hangs up so as not to have to listen to any more ugliness. Today, she'd be legally required under Indiana state law to report the abuse to Child Protection Services and be in serious trouble for not doing so.
64** The real reason that The Mother is so upset by the Leg Lamp? At the time, stay-at-home moms ruled the house and everything about it reflected on her. The Mother's take on the Old Man's Major Award: "A woman's leg in a fishnet stocking? Not in ''my'' front window!!"
65** Ralphie's parents allowed him to stand in line by himself in a crowded department store when he goes to see Santa. In a post "Stranger Danger" world, even the least attentive parents would not allow that.
66** Even the film's own DeliberateValuesDissonance between the first and second halves of the 20th century has some dissonance from current societal values, as while the film is very critical of societal views on gender, [[CorporalPunishment stern child-rearing]], [[JustIgnoreIt bullying]], consumerism and even Christmas itself in 1940s America, it's still depicted with some semblance of nostalgia, even if only in a tongue-in-cheek way. A big factor in the film's eventual HypeBacklash is because millennial viewers are divorced from this nostalgia and much ''more'' critical of these values (due to many of these same boomers making a conscious decision not to pass them on to their children).
67* ValuesResonance: Part of why the film has such a massive staying power beyond its original baby-boomer audience is how Jean Shepherd perfectly ''nailed'' a child's take on Christmastime. It may be a video game or some other electronic gizmo they're pining for nowadays, but most kids watching can easily put themselves in Ralphie's shoes and know all about the agony and excitement that he goes through waiting for the big day to arrive.
68* TheWoobie:
69** Poor Flick and Schwartz go through a lot of abuse during the film, with Flick getting his tongue stuck on the flagpole, Schwartz getting an undeserved beating from his mother, and both of them getting beat up by Scut Farkus.
70** Ralphie’s parents go through a lot in this movie. You just want to give the mom a hug and a hot meal and give the Old Man a new furnace.
71** Ralphie himself goes through hell to get his Christmas gift only for it to cause the boy to break his glasses.

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