While I wasn’t alive when the first “A Christmas Story” flick came out in 1983, I’ve seen my fair share of re-runs of the classic film over the years.
So, when I heard about and saw the trailer for “A Christmas Story Christmas,” I knew I had to see it – even if it only meant to see if the story continued at all.
Sequels have been pretty hit or miss lately and it’s even rarer for a Christmas-centered movie to make more than one relevant story with the same characters over time.
Plus, it’s been nearly 40 years since the original debuted!
Overall, I found the jokes a little lacking, but overall the same family atmosphere stayed true to the original.
If anything, it’ll make you want to watch the first movie all over again and that isn’t too bad!
A Christmas Story Christmas is a Christmas comedy film directed by Clay Kaytis from a script he co-wrote with Nick Schenk, from an original story co-written by Schenk and Peter Billingsley; it is a legacy sequel to A Christmas Story and serves as the eighth installment in the Parker Family Saga franchise.
The film is produced by Billingsley and Vince Vaughn along with Cale Boyter, Jay Ashenfelter, Marc Toberoff, and Irwin Zwilling.
Billingsley reprises his role as Ralphie Parker alongside Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, R.D. Robb, Zack Ward, Yano Anaya, Erinn Hayes, River Drosche, Julianna Layne play, and Julie Hagerty.
The film clocks in at 98 minutes long and is rated PG for language and some rude material/behavior.
In December 1973, 33 years after the events of A Christmas Story, Ralphie Parker (Billingsley) has moved away from Hohman, Ind., and lives in Chicago with his loving wife Sandy (Hayes) and two children, Mark (Drosche) and Julie (Layne).
Ralphie has been taking the year off from an unspecified “rat race” job to write his first novel, but its excessive length leads multiple publishers to reject it.
As the family prepares for Ralphie’s parents to come to visit for Christmas, Mrs. Parker (Hagerty) calls to tell Ralphie that his father, a.k.a “the Old Man,” has sadly died.
The grief-stricken family makes its way to Hohman in Ralphie’s beat-up 1966 Plymouth to be with Mrs. Parker, who has received a large number of casseroles as condolence offerings.
She gives Ralphie two tasks: write his father’s obituary, and take up his mantle of making Christmas special for the family.
Ralphie’s children befriend one of the Bumpus kids next door and are bullied by two children on a snowmobile.
Ralphie reunites with Flick (Schwartz), who now owns a tavern, and Schwartz (Robb), who still lives with his mother and has run up a large tab at Flick’s.
He also takes his family out tree shopping and, failing to replicate his father’s negotiation skills, ends up with a tree too tall for the house’s living room.
While decorating, Julie becomes nervous that there isn’t an angel to top it with.
Improvising, Ralphie tells her that Santa Claus looks for stars in Hohman, not angels.
All the while, he finds his first typewriter in the attic and begins work on the Old Man’s obituary, struggling to find the right words and instead using his makeshift workspace to write the sequel to his still-unpublished novel.
But, as with its predecessor, things start to go awry for the family with hilarious results.
It’s definitely worth a watch on HBO Max – along with the original streaming there, too!
