Major Award
Visiting A Christmas Story: the House
Every year, the TBS marathon run of A Christmas Story takes top priority in the Spoon Haus holiday viewing lineup. For the mister, it’s one of his all-time favorite movies. For me, it’s retro holiday awesome, but mostly, it has to do with the fact that it was filmed in Cleveland, my ol’ town of home. The parade and department store scenes were filmed in Cleveland’s Public Square and the adjacent former Higbee’s, which was the real name of the store. My family made it a yearly tradition to brave the shopping crowds and head downtown for the lights, decorations, and festivities the day after Thanksgiving. (Adult me looks back at the thought of that insanity and reschedules it a week later.) We often took the metro train into Public Square, and we always hit up Higbee’s. It was filmed during my childhood, so a lot of what you see is a lot of what I experienced. (Though, Santa, if I recall correctly, hung out on the 4th floor where kids could go and do some secret shopping for their families.) The house that Ralphie and Co. lived in was a real house in Cleveland, as well, at least for the exterior and select interior shots not done in a studio. Many of the movie’s scenes were actually filmed in Toronto, Ontario.
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Hubs doing his Randy-ina-snowsuit impression, pre-renovation, 2005.
image via achristmasstoryhouse.com A few Christmases ago, we learned that someone had just bought the house, via eBay, of all things, with the intention of turning it into a museum for the classic flick. They were also offering tours of the home, though it was in prerenovation stage at the time. We pulled up in front of the house, which sacreligeously had been “updated” on the outside by a previous owner. The new owner assured us that plans were in the works to restore it to its full yellow and green glory. Fast forward a couple years and the A Christmas Story house is alive and kicking. Not only do they offer tours, but they’ve also created and now host the annual A Christmas Story convention, and even converted a house across the street into a museum and gift shop. The online site is full of information, behind-the-scenes production tidbits from the movie, the actual eBay ad for the house, and a more extensive array of movie-related gifts, including the opportunity to purchase your very own pink-nightmare bunny costume. Don’t think I wasn’t tempted to slip that one into the shopping cart. As for Higbee’s, it ended up becoming a Dillard’s department store until its
ultimate closure in 2002. The innards are now home to Cleveland’s visitor center, though I find it somewhat depressing these days to peek in the windows and see cubicles. One window, however, became a bit of a time capsule; in 2008, the storefront spot where Ralphie drooled over the Red Rider BB-gun display served as a little shrine for the 25th anniversary of the film. If you’re ever in Cleveland (don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it) and are a fan of A Christmas Story, it’s worth stopping by for a tour. If you happen to be in Seattle, you can catch the current production of A Christmas Story: the Musical, now playing at the 5th Street Theatre until December 19. While a lot has changed since my childhood holidays, I can always count on A Christmas Story to take me back to that special room in my brain where my grade-school self still lives quite the active life. Hopefully you have a go-to memory-maker in your repertoire, as well. Wishing a hearty “fra-gee-lay” to you and yours! www.achristmasstoryhouse.com Dec/Jan 2011 Spoon : 37