Imagine, if you will, that it is eight o’clock on Christmas Eve night. I’m grabbing the remote to my parents satellite dish to switch the channel to TBS so I can watch “A Christmas Story”. It’s a movie my parents think is stupid and refuse to watch. Every single year. Without fail. Even when their oldest daughter is in town from out of state.
“We aren’t watching that stupid movie,” my father would exclaim.
“Can we watch something else,” my mother asks with a smile that tells me she actually enjoys parts of the film whilst throwing shade at it.
I would spend the next 24 hours watching it in pieces whenever my parents went to Christmas mass or left the living room to get more sugar cookies heavy with frosting. They would come back in and make me change it. It’s a funny back and forth that I think both them and I enjoy. Eventually, the begrudgingly allow me to finish it and end up laughing at it as much as I do.
Ralphie, his brother Randy, and their parents live in small Indiana town in the 1940’s. Being a typical boy, Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.
“You’ll shoot your eye out,” his mother, teacher, and Santa all tell him.
This doesn’t stop him from wanting it though. It ends up being his father who gets it for him and he is beyond excited when he opens it on Christmas Day. That is until he shoots his eye out.
This film, with all of its 1940’s charm and gentle protagonist, is brilliant. There is a reason that it gets played for 24 hours straight on TBS. If you’re like me, and you’ve seen it countless times, each viewing gives you something new to enjoy. The father getting the sexy leg lamp and putting it in the window. The mother “accidentally breaking it”. The dogs that destroy the Christmas Day turkey forcing the family to eat Asian food instead. The Little Orphan Annie decoder pin. The mother hiding that Ralphie got into a fight at school. Randy not being able to put his arms down in his rednsnowsuit.
Really, the whole film is a gem. I genuinely hope that you enjoy it as much as I do and that your socially distanced holiday is safe, warm, and full of love. If it isn’t, know that I am there with you in spirit as I am alone this year wishing I could fight with my parents over the TV. Whatever you walk of life or religion, I hope that this season has treated you well and that 2021 will be a better year for all of us.
Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Happy Hannakkuh! And Happy New Year if I don’t see you before then.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
Imagine, if you will, that it is eight o’clock on Christmas Eve night. I’m grabbing the remote to my parents satellite dish to switch the channel to TBS so I can watch “A Christmas Story”. It’s a movie my parents think is stupid and refuse to watch. Every single year. Without fail. Even when their oldest daughter is in town from out of state.
“We aren’t watching that stupid movie,” my father would exclaim.
“Can we watch something else,” my mother asks with a smile that tells me she actually enjoys parts of the film whilst throwing shade at it.
I would spend the next 24 hours watching it in pieces whenever my parents went to Christmas mass or left the living room to get more sugar cookies heavy with frosting. They would come back in and make me change it. It’s a funny back and forth that I think both them and I enjoy. Eventually, the begrudgingly allow me to finish it and end up laughing at it as much as I do.
Ralphie, his brother Randy, and their parents live in small Indiana town in the 1940’s. Being a typical boy, Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.
“You’ll shoot your eye out,” his mother, teacher, and Santa all tell him.
This doesn’t stop him from wanting it though. It ends up being his father who gets it for him and he is beyond excited when he opens it on Christmas Day. That is until he shoots his eye out.
This film, with all of its 1940’s charm and gentle protagonist, is brilliant. There is a reason that it gets played for 24 hours straight on TBS. If you’re like me, and you’ve seen it countless times, each viewing gives you something new to enjoy. The father getting the sexy leg lamp and putting it in the window. The mother “accidentally breaking it”. The dogs that destroy the Christmas Day turkey forcing the family to eat Asian food instead. The Little Orphan Annie decoder pin. The mother hiding that Ralphie got into a fight at school. Randy not being able to put his arms down in his rednsnowsuit.
Really, the whole film is a gem. I genuinely hope that you enjoy it as much as I do and that your socially distanced holiday is safe, warm, and full of love. If it isn’t, know that I am there with you in spirit as I am alone this year wishing I could fight with my parents over the TV. Whatever you walk of life or religion, I hope that this season has treated you well and that 2021 will be a better year for all of us.
Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Happy Hannakkuh! And Happy New Year if I don’t see you before then.
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