A Christmas Story * FIRST TIME WATCHING * reaction & commentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2020
- My FIRST TIME EVER watching A Christmas Story. Yes, I am a 26 year old who has NO IDEA what this movie is even about is even about - so I take YOU on a journey to watch me give you: What I think the movie is about, real time me watching, and my final review.
IMPORTANT TIME STAMPS:
preview review starts: 2:12
Watch With Me: 3:09
My Review: 17:05
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The reason this movie has become a beloved classic is because it's so relatable. Everyone can look back on their childhood and remember wanting a special toy, daydreaming about being a hero, getting in trouble for saying bad words, doing dumb stuff with other kids on the playground, and a hundred other little things that make the family and the story feel so real and personal.
Well, that and the fact that it was force fed to American audiences for years. This movie flopped when it came out; therefore, it was available to Turner broadcasting for mere pennies. Turner wanted holiday movies to show during the Christmas season, and this one was bargain basement cheap. And so it quickly became the most played holiday movie on television, year after year. An entire generation grew up watching this movie as part of their annual tradition. That being said, I love it-- Christmas isn't Christmas if I don't get to watch A Christmas Story.
@@theecstaticinfidelhypothes9222 I liked it before it was popular and in endless Christmas airings on Turner channels. *dons hipster hat and exits *
I watch it every Christmas, I'm a kid and that is A CLASSIC!!!
Plus, 50s nostalgia was marketable in the 80s. I mean, a former film and TV star from the former decade was then President.
@@moviemaestro800 This isn’t even 50’s nostalgia. It’s pre-WWII nostalgia. But I think the pre-war & the early 50’s were very similar where kids & Christmas are involved. It’s when that crazy rock n roll came that everything started to change🤣
Your "glitter strings" are called tinsel. I grew up calling them icicles.
Galoshes are another name for rubber boots.
Yep! Icicles were a thing back in the day. You would just stand back and throw them one strand at a time on the tree and half the time they'd stick to you because of static.
@@theMermaidRhonda and take weeks after the tree was gone to get rid of....lol
Yeah, we called tinsel icicles, too. It was the turnover from real to artificial trees that killed them off. When you had a real tree you disposed of it at the end of Christmas and the tinsel went with it. When you had an artificial tree - it just tangles on the limb and ruins it, then you have to throw out your artificial tree... which defeats the whole purpose. :D
“Glitter strings”. Are called tinsel
The best way to put them on the tree, was to blow them on.
"You used up all the glue ON PURPOSE!!!"
best line in movie history
“Not a finga’ !! “
"Has an icicle ever killed anybody?"
Sounds like it's time for Die Hard 2.
I kinda want her to watch the poorly dubbed TV version
(German accent) “Yippie kai yay, Mr. Falcon.”
Or the lovley bones
On average 15 people in USA die from icicles every year .
She wouldn't know, being southern. You have to live where it gets below 20 below zero and is both zero for a lot of days straight to see ice that can fall and kill. I saw it the first winter out of the south in the mid west.
Ralphie asks his mom, his teacher and Santa for that BB gun...they all said no "You'll shoot your eye out" The one person he didn't ask was his father...and his father was the one who got it for him.
I'm sure Mom told Dad or he saw the advertisement that Ralphie placed on their bed.
The film basically shows that each in their own way, at different times, Ralphie's parents stand up for him.
My wife got me one for Christmas this year. Wrapped in Christmas Story paper. I actually got choked up.
@@themoviedealers And he was sitting next to Ralphie at the table when he blurted out to his mother what he wanted for chirstmas.
Also, also...He told his wife he had one when he was Ralphie's age so it could just be he thought Ralphie would like one.
Because dads are awesome...says a dad of three. :)
Ashleigh: "Did parents really actually do that?" (Referring to washing your mouth out with soap)
Me: Yes, yes they did. To this day I know exactly what soap taste like.
You shouldn't have had such a potty mouth! 😂
Hell, you can buy gum that for some ungodly reason tastes like soap.
I remember the taste of Ivory soap to this day. As you can tell from the comments different soaps had different tastes, all were nasty of course.
I personally have sampled many brands of soap (I come from a family of truck drivers...)
Now we have cuss-jars, and the parents spend more time putting dollar-bills in.
Her: Never seen A Christmas Story
Me: Laughing at 'Fragile, it must be Italian' every Christmas for the entirety of my 29 years in existence.
“What’s a bacchanalia?” It’s like a hootenanny.
OMG. Best comment.
see also "shindig"
Ah! A man of culture!
@@davidbrodie92 is that like a hoedown?
A Bacchanalia is kind of misrepresented in this film. A Real Bacchanalia is a drunken revelry....Like Romans in togas style..
The dad, Darren McGavin, is an unheralded treasure of American acting. So many good performances on screen and tv. Miss him.
My dad, he's an Oldsmobile-man!
Totally......as a youngling I loved Kolchak: The Night Stalker
@@Thor_Odinson
I loved that show!!!
@@Thor_Odinson That show's first season was one of the all-time greats!
@@Thor_Odinson I love that it's still on TV every weekend!
"Do you have to wear that many layers?" Ah, southerners. You'll never know the trials of a northern winter. My wife is from Mississippi so I had to confirm to her this is what getting ready for school was like. And she had to explain to me what the hell turnip greens were.
Well. What the hell are turnip greens?
@@davis.fourohfour The green leafy part of a turnip.
yeah, back then we didn't have magic fabrics, either, so you had to bundle up in layers.
@@davis.fourohfour the leafs on top of the turnip root that are cut and boiled. A little like spinach, pretty good with hot sauce.
my wife is from the Philippines--the equator. the closest they get to winter is 70 F maybe. they put Xmas lites on palm trees! took her to an amusement park in Manila that has a 'frozen' section that they keep about 0 F. they hand out coats to ppl going in. had her sit on an ice block to feel how cold it was. I told her 'in here, yeah, it's cold, but there's no wind. in winter where I'm from, it's rare to NOT have blowing wind w/the cold.' they even had an 'ice hill' and handed you a hardened potato sack to sled down it(kinda like the big carnival slides here w/the 'limp' potato sacks). wife got here and was super excited to make snow angels
This film supposedly takes place in 1938. America was still in the depths of the Great Depression, and the fact that this household had food of any kind on the table was deeply appreciated by the family. Yes, they ate inexpensive foods, like potatoes - because it was more than lots of folks could afford. And there was no extra money for soda - milk was considered very healthy for growing children, and so they did their best to provide it. Homemade gifts were normal, and an expensive gift like an air rifle was truly a luxury. The original meaning of "bacchanalia" was a festival in honor of the god Bacchus, generally celebrated with a lot of wine, dancing and debauchery. It's use in the film is ironic. And on average, 15 people in the US die from icicles every year.
This movie isn't a documentary, and it's clear that Jean Shepherd was trying to describe a feeling more than a chronology. That said, it seems pretty clear that the setting is the tail end of the Depression, people were generally employed--though hardly living a life of luxury, and running on bald tires ;). The last scene relates to The Wizard of Oz, a 1939 film. There's an interesting section in the Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Story#Dating_the_story
I figured it was 1940
It was actually, according to the commentary, set in 1940. This makes sense as characters from The Wizard of Oz (released in 1939) where part of the Christmas parade.
@@Erik-um1zn I always thought that the Mickey Mouse costume was an anachronism in this film. Mickey was around, but that is a later depiction of him.
The US economy started recovering in 1933. There was a dip in 1937/38, but it was no longer the "depths" of the depression.
"My old man, overcome by art."
Best line ever.
When i was 7 , my friend's teenage brother convinced me that calling my parents "assholes" would make them let me stay up later than normal .. so 2 hours later there i was sitting on the edge of my bed with a bar of ivory soap in my yapper ..
Lucky SOB! My family used Dial.
😂
@@jameswilson8433 Ugh Dial would be awful!
@@bdavis7801 It was! Coulda been worse, though. Coulda been Lava.
"What the hell did you say to me? Do you think I am Ryan's mom"?
Milk and mash potatoes almost every night growing up for me in the 50s and 60s. When this came out originally, it was hilarious because so many of us had gone through these same experiences, and the phrase "you'll shoot your eye out" was heard by all of us kids when we wanted a BB gun. I still find it hilarious and it brings back great memories. For someone your age, it loses a lot of that charm, and that is why it is not as special for you. Nothing wrong with that, it is just the way it is! :)
If you want another taste of Americana by the same author, check out the sequel to this movie called “Ollie Hopnoodel’s Haven of Bliss”. It’s about the American vacation experience of this same family.
Yeah. I was born in the early '70s, probably the last generation to experience Christmas this way, but me, my dad, my mom, and my stepdad, all growing up in different parts of the country in different decades all watched this and thought, "That's exactly what it was like being a kid."
Exactly ! It's like being from another planet lol.
Yes getting your mouth washed out with soap was real. The kid with goggles in line at the mall actually freaked out the child playing Ralphie. The Chinese restaurant scene was largely unknown to the mom character. So her surprised reactions to the duck were real and unrehearsed. The movie holds more significance to those of us closer to that time frame I guess. Glad you enjoyed it. Loved your reaction! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Peace!
The humor really packs a bigger punch if you grew up closer to the films setting, with siblings birthdays ranging from 60 to 73 our house absolutely love this film.
The mother's reaction to the duck's head being chopped off is real! She was given a script that left that part out so when the time came the shock would be real.
I like when the brother comes out of the cabinet to eat and the dad gives that "wtf?" look but doesnt say anything lol
"A kid in a bunny onesie with a gun." I think that's the prequel to Donnie Darko.
The one comment that people scratched their head and said what?? and I was like yes a kindred sprit LOL
@@midnite1869 LOL I was kind of surprised that I was the firs to make this comment.
Donnie Darko and Southland tales... That might be too much to ask for.
Nobody scratched harder than Ash. She has never seen anything. lol Its like she just spawned on earth and started a youtube channel...
or Gummo
"Something to cry about."
In the army, during an exercise I was being cheeky and used camo paint to give myself a cat face (black nose and whiskers on my cheeks). Lieutenant told me to wipe it off or he'd give me "something to meow about."
I think the difference in seeing certain movies for the first time as a kid as opposed to an adult makes more of an impact. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
Exactly.
This movie means more to an older generation because of the nostalgia factor with a lot of the things that you didn’t pick up on...
Red Ryder BB guns were a rite of passage for MANY boys, including me and my brother. The old school Santa set up in the store... the Zeppelin, Sunday crossword puzzles in the paper, and many others.
Same here, except mine was a Daisy model 1894. Still have it. And my eyes. LOL
Agreed. I’m born 1978 and love this movie. The younger generations may not understand or appreciate movies like this. She laughed and enjoyed it more than I think she’d admit though lol
My uncle had a glass eye. Guess why.
Red Ryder BB guns are STILL in production! Of course, it's not the same without your Red Ryder gloves and hat but.... Pellets hurt more especially if you spend five minutes pumping up the rifle. 😂
As a kid in the late 70's you didn't have many new toys, maybe some hand me downs, so you loved your few Christmas gifts all the more, and yes, sometimes slept with them.
Merry Christmas Everyone! “Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense.”
Beans has the same defence.
Still lmao at that quote
What I love most is that it was "the old man" who was the only one listening to Ralphie, even though he acted like he wasn't, it took me a long time to figure that out.
I don't think the Old Man was ever around to hear Ralphie mention he wanted the BB gun. It's just the type of gift a father would buy their son. My father gave me my first BB gun, first pocket knife, and when i was 18, my first rifle.
He says it at the dinner table while dad is doing the puzzle
@@zach4627 He says it at breakfast after his dad starts to leave to work. After he leaves, Ralphie's mother asks him what he wants for Christmas. He blurts out the BB gun, and she says "You'll shoot your eye out". Afterward, the Old Man comes back inside because the car is frozen up.
@@RemyJackson wrong
@@wendytalton9384 Only if you are referring to me not mentioning Ralphie's fantasy sequence about fighting off Black Bart. But as far as the dad's presence goes, he leaves just before the mother asks Ralphie what he wants for Christmas, then doesn't return until after the mother fusses at the brother to eat his breakfast and Ralphie imagines fighting Black Bart. Then the Old Man comes back in complaining the how his car could freeze up in the middle of Summer on the equator. Then he has to ho deal with the furnace. He was never around to hear Ralphie mention the BB gun.
As a kid of the 60’s, there wasn’t anything we looked forward to more than the new Christmas catalogs from Sears, Penny’s or Montgomery Wards. I feel sad for today’s children because they don’t know what they missed.
Especially Sears! But Century had a good catalog too.
Same ❤👍
Caldor's had a pretty hefty book too!
I loved when the Christmas catalog came! It was like it’s own little Christmas. I’d pore over it for hours & hours..
us 80's kids are Toys r Us kids! dont even got those anymore.
Even as a kid my favorite character was the old man. Main difference watching this film as an adult is that the old man is so much more relatable than he used to be when I was a kid.
Same here, lol. I didn't even have a dad growing up but I related to that character more than the others.
Originally Jack Nicholson was going to play the dad.
@@ffjsb I was just going to say that. Bob Clark said thank god they got Darren McGavin
For many of us older folks, there is a lot of nostalgia for the old days that are represented in this film.
My dad was born in 1935, yesterday we celebrated his 86th birthday. I never met my grandfather but my dad says this movie was exactly like his childhood in the 1930s and early 1940s. I am 51 and a lot of this movie is like my childhood too. Nothing like the smell of a real tree with tinsel (the glitter strings) and blinking colored lights.
8:52 *Everything* was a radio show at the time. This was the heyday of great radio shows - 1938 was the year when Orson Wells’ Mercury Theater did their infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.
9:40 Yes, car doors worked like that at one time, although the doors that opened from the front became notorious for popping open in accidents, and were nicknamed “suicide doors.”
10:11 Ooooooh, yes. “Washing your mouth out with soap,” was a real punishment for “dirty words.”
Yeah, we had milk with every meal in the 70's and early 80's. too. Eating soap was a thing then as well. ;)
I can also confirm the over abundance of milk back then was just astonishing
In elementary school, we had a choice of vanilla milk or chocolate milk. When I got to high school and had a choice of ice tea I felt like a grown up. At home, we drank milk for breakfast and we had a choice of milk or sweet tea for other meals. My mom made Kool-Aid, but we didn't drink soda's regularly. Only about once or twice a week. Usually on week-ends or grocery day. When we were outside playing in the summer, we would drink water from the garden hose. Good times.
Yes in the 80s and 90s for me we would have milk with our meals
We did too.👍
@@joyr36 Always loved getting the chocolate.
"Why were these kids not supervised?" Because 1940's, that's why. They're a few decades away from the obsessive supervision kids have in public schools today.
StormWolf Probably closer to 5 decades. It didn’t start to get crazy till the mid to late 90’s. I grew up in the 70’s & early 80’s & we had very little supervision back then.
@@susanmaggiora4800 And the serial killers took advantage of that...
@@susanmaggiora4800 Yeah, I was already graduated high school by the mid-90s so I thankfully never experienced it, but my kid...holy crap.
@@ms_scribbles same here, class of 96 and we would run the neighborhoods on our bikes with no one having a clue where we were until dinner time. No cell phones either to track or call us home. Parents just knew you’d be back on time or you were in for it.
Yup, after Columbine.
It's okay if you don't love something. For a lot of us, it's a nostalgia in which you can not really participate. It's not part of your tradition, so it's not going to touch you the same way it does me, at 50 years old.
"Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defence." LMAO, one of my favourite lines.
During my early years, I had a tree every Christmas. You don't need to water them, as they have no roots to water(as they're already chopped down, lol), but they drop a lot of pine needles you need to clean up and eventually turn brown(as dead plants do.)
Defense
They dropped a lot of pine needles because you didn't water them, your tree was drying out.... There are no roots, but the trunk absobs enough to keep the tree fresh throughout the holiday season. That is why the tree stands had a bowl shape in the middle for watering. In early January, the water just didn't work anymore and that's when you got rid of the tree, preferably before it started sheeding the needles.
The tree sucks up water through capillary action. YOU really MUST water a tree.
Chinese rendition of Christmas Carols.
"I'm not gonna laugh."
Beheads Christmas Duck.
"Challenge failed."
The “glitter strands” you asked about are called “icycles” also called “tinsel” and were very common up until sometime in the 1990’s.
Yup. Tinsel. Nothing wrong with it.
And tinsel used to be made out of lead (guys used to save some for fishing after Christmas), then aluminum, and finally mylar.
The lead looked the best because the weight made it hang straight, like a real icicle.
Tree with tinsel + cats = Tress without tinsel
You would only really use Tinsel with real trees because it is really hard to get it all off at the end of the season
@@Rangermike621 Pretty much goes without saying. Almost all trees back then were real. Towns used to have huge Christmas tree bonfires the second week of January when I was a kid. Miss that.
Fun fact: Flick, the kid who got his tongue stuck to the metal pole, was played by Scott Schwartz, who later got into the adult film industry. He grew up in Somerville and Bridgewater, NJ (misspelled as Sommerville on his IMDB page), and one of his math teachers was Tim Robbins. This is relevant only because I also grew up in Somerville and Bridgewater and had Mr. Robbins for Precalculus, and one day he paused class to go out in the hall and talk to a visiting former student, then told us it was Scott Schwartz, who played Flick in A Christmas Story, then grew up to get into the adult film industry. Yes, he told us about that. The whole math department there was great, especially Mr. Robbins, Mr. Hamilton (I wasn't in any of his classes, but by all accounts he was just as much fun), and Mrs. Neumann (my Calculus teacher).
Well, I guess it makes sense. He had experience putting his tongue on things in a movie.
The mother (Melinda Dillon) was also the mother of Barry in "Close Encounters."
Guess it explains her thing for potatoes.
She was also in Slap Shot with Paul Newman.
As well as Harry and the Hendersons
"Why are we singing around a dumpster on fire?"
Because it's still 2020, but it's Christmas.
And the movie takes place in 1939/40. Ww2 just started, it fits. 😁
Really a burn barrel to keep warm. Sometimes on MASH they showed them. Basically a temporary outdoor fireplace.
@@CopperValentine For the U.S., WW II started at the end of 1941. This movie's setting is late Depression Era.
Fun Fact: They didn't warn the actress playing the mother that the goose would still have it's head on and then would be cut off, her reaction of half laughing half-horrified is genuine
The pulled that on Melinda Dillon?
@@robertlehnert4148 according to an interview with Bob Clark, they told the kids right before the scene so they wouldn't freak out, but he wanted to get her and Darren MacGavin's genuine reactions
Your reaction to the the Chinese restaurant singing was priceless. Long live the 80s.
"He lay there like a slug, it was his only defense" sounds like what I do when a watch these videos!
Most people watch a Christmas Story when they are a kid and can identify with Ralphy. Then it sticks as a tradition.
very try
Yeah, I always related to Ralphie went ape shit on Farkus.
Ashley: "I have no idea what this movie is about"
Also Ashley, about 26 times: "Oh, is that this movie?"
A lot of shows reference scenes from this movie like the show Family Guy
I remember my brother telling me that he had never seen Pulp Fiction. I told him that if he felt that something was being referenced, at the time, and he wasn't sure what was being referenced, it was probably Pulp Fiction.
I first saw this in the theatre in the '80's. I can now quote almost the whole thing I've seen it so often.
You've got to remember it was taking place in 1939.
I know this is months past due, but I would like to thank you for having an open mind and watching this. I really love your videos and the fact that you are trying to understand something beyond yourself. These are great and I hope you keep doing them. It really brightened my day today. Thanks again for all your hard work.
People having not seen this literally surprises me. It's been on 24 hours during Christmas for the last 30 years.
Not in the UK, never seen this before.
Never watched it, never even heard about it.
@@vidarsmestad9143 Ditto.
I probably watched it in pieces never sat down to watch the whole thing everything about this movie creeps me out
Yes! and I watch it every year! lol
"Three blocks away, Schwartz was getting his." Ralphie bears false witness against his friend, just to get the bar of soap out of his mouth for a minute. What a great kid!
I think what you miss, here, is that this isn't meant to be a traditional Hollywood comedy. This is more of a collection of short stories for the screen. These are a collection of xmas moments and stories that are like the ones that end up being the ones that matter in people's lives. Nothing amazing happens. It is just great good story telling - with a good dose of humor thrown in. There are two aspect to the film:
1) What it's like to experience xmas as a kid. It's just a series of what could be real-world events that one can experience growing up during xmas. As we watch, we can relate to Ralphie and remember that what it is like to experience xmas as a kid: wishing for that ONE toy, whatever it may be... red rider air rifle with this this that tells time and a compass in the stock, playstation, dollhouse, iPhone, etc, and having your world revolve around that event for a few weeks. The terrifying department store Santa. The bully. The little brother tagging along everywhere you go. It's real life.
2) Technically, it is a "Coming of Age" story. These are stories about moments where children start to become adults not because of age but because of their experiences, good and bad. They are about those moments that form our world view: Ralphie's disillusionment with Little orphan Annie once he realizes that the "secret message" is "just a commercial"; the moment when Santa looks at him and says "You'll shoot your eye out, kid"; and, most obvious of all, when he confront the bully. (And, importantly for his world view, when his mother covers for him with his dad after that fight.) All of these are moments where one's view of the world and one's view about how life should work start to form and are we are all influenced by moments like these growing up.
As one walks through life, you appreciate these moments very much and getting to "live" them via watching this movie is a major attraction to people.
Stand By Me, a Stephen King book-turned-movie, is a classic example of a coming of age story and I highly recommend it. Good story. Great characters. great acting.
Ovaltine is for old people because when they were young people it was for them. Also Ovaltine is dope.
We drank Nestle's Quick growing up. They had chocolate and strawberry flavors.
It's great with a shot of Butterscotch Schnapps and some whip cream!
Ovaltine is chocolate malt flavored, if youve never tried it its like liquid Whoppers. Its great to mix with other stuff
Makes a great milkshake!
@@clairekane4157 The Roy Rogers show was brought to us courtesy of Nestle's Quick.
I was this kid's age in the 70s. We really weren't directly supervised by teachers during recess. It was basically pandemonium and survival of the fittest. If some kid actually got hurt someone would go get a teacher after the fact.
I was Ralphie's age in the 70s and we DID have supervision on the playground. They called the person the "playground monitor." I think it depended on your school back then.
Santa spitting snuff in your eye is the funniest thing I’ve heard today. Shout out to grandma!
As long as you give your honest,true reactions,no one will hate on you
"Has an icicle ever killed someone?"
Wait until you watch Die Hard 2.
My thought exactly!!!
Used to be a once a year thing in the north east
Little boy that played Ralphie was also one of the supervisory Elves in “Elf”.
He had been a casting director for Zarathura by Jon Favreau. They include the leg lamp in the background as the house is thrown about.
He was also in Iron Man. He's the guy the villain is yelling at when he says "Tony Stark built that in a CAVE! Out of SCRAP!"
And the ticket agent in Four Christmases.
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 A bit part that would pay off 11 years later 🕷
He's also Vince Vaughn's best friend, which is where the Jon Favreau connection comes in.
This is and has been such a classic because all the sayings; getting ready to walk to school in snow; the threats and punishments; even the dad yelling at a piece of machinery that he was trying to fix, were all things we heard, or our parents heard, while growing up. I was told I’d shoot my eye out while playing tiddlywinks too aggressively. 🤣 We were told to clean up our language or they’d wash our mouth out with soap. I had that done to me. 😁🤗😆 We also would get some awful outfits made from aunts. One year it was cute teddy bear sweatshirts. They were great except she glued little red or green bows on his outstretched arms. That went over our breasts. Right on each nipple, or where it looked like they’d be.🤗🤣😂😆
What I like about this movie is that it depicts a daily life in the 40's through the eyes of a kid and shows how people celebrated Christmas back then.
The "glitter strings" on the tree is called Tinsels, it's a very common decoration for Christmas trees.
"It's a BB gun, you're not gonna do that" - Farm girl status confirmed
My father in law got his eye shot out by a BB gun in the 1950s. Honest truth.
I remember accidentally shooting the window out of my Dad's Ford Tempo with my Red Rider bb gun when I was a kid lol.
@@mizzoupatriot8814 neighbor's kid got a bb gun for Christmas 1 year, shot my mom's bedroom window that day...it definitely happens
By the way. You know the mother is Barry's mother in Close Encounters.
Here's trivia for you, then... she's also the gal who commits suicide in "Absence of Malice" with Paul Newman and Sally Field.
th-cam.com/video/0NJPPEh5yk4/w-d-xo.html
@@Hiraghm I don't think I saw that one. I love movies and have watched A LOT of them. In fact I have every single one Ashley has watched on her show so far. But I never saw Absence of Malice. I don't think. You recommend it?
"who asks for a blimp?" lol I still remember one of my favorite gifts as a young kid was getting the original TMNT blimp
A door that opens the opposite of what you're used to is referred to as a "suicide door." They were really common in earlier vehicles, including some of the very first ones. When you hinge them that way you can make it easier for people to get into, sort of like a buggie or carriage back in the day.
Fun fact: Ralphie grew up to be the guy Jeff Bridges shouts "Tony Stark built this in a cave with a box of scraps!" at in the first Iron Man.
And produced it
Yep. He and Jon Favreau are super tight and produce a lot of stuff together. He was also one of the producers of Elf.
@@JeffKelly03 He was also an elf in "Elf."
And he is one of the evil scientists in Spider-Man Far from Home that creates the illusions
My family never pulled the "you'll shoot your eye out." Their cautionary warning was always, "if you fall down and break both your legs, don't come running to me."
Two interesting notes:
1. The narrator, Jean Shepherd (whose stories inspired the movie) had a cameo as the guy telling Ralphie where the line to see Santa starts.
2. Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie, had a part in "Elf" as one of the elf supervisors trying to find an appropriate job for Buddy.
The dad was in a TV series in the 70's called the Night Stalker. Sort of a pre-cursor to X-Files.
Merry Christmas, Ashleigh and Beans.
Merry Christmas!
@@awkwardashleigh th-cam.com/video/1MaDAW0jRYM/w-d-xo.html
What about hubbin?
@@awkwardashleigh oh my god that movie is absolute classic and definitely a great choice to react to. Awesome reaction. Could you please react to a league of their own it it's a 1992 classic with Tom Hanks and if you do. Please react to the whole scene where tom hanks enters the girls locker room. It is SO FUNNY
Far-gi-le was in a Marx Brothers movie a very long time ago.
I think the reason this is considered a classic is because it is one of the few films that is told from the perspective of a kid at Christmas. Even though it takes place in a different era than I grew up in, I can relate to that feeling of being a kid and wanting that one gift so badly. It's almost like going back to my own childhood. Also the real Santa only uses Massey Ferguson tractors.
Yeah. Swap the radio for television and it's not much different from growing up the '70s.
"Has an icicle ever killed anybody?" Time to get her to watch Die Hard 2, gang.
I think those of us who are older and grew up in the upper midwest Great Lakes region get far more out of this movie. Thanks for watching it and letting us oldsters share some of our fond memories with you. Slainte!
"Has an icicle ever killed somebody?"
Actually... yes, yes they have.
I had one come of the second story roof of our house growing up, stabbed into the ball on top of my hat and deflected from my head. Got very lucky
Not to mention the killer in The Lovely Bones.
You'll get your answer in _Die Hard 2: Die Harder._
about 15 people a year according to a cursory google search
@@jonesey251 They should make it a tradition to take a broom or something to hit the top of the entrance so that it will knock off the ice from the roof.
How Ralphie felt about the decoded message was exactly how I felt when the Indiana Jones Adventure ride at Disneyland opened. We were given “decoder cards” at the beginning of the ride, but everything you read in line was like, “Thank you to our sponser, AT&T” and “Be sure to stay seated during the ride.”
One of my nephew's favorite movies. He has a leg lamp. What helps make it a classic is being an accurate depiction of growing up, northern winters, and Christmas activities back then. All the scenes were still common growing up in the 60s as I did. That's called tinsel to decorate the tree and add sparkly reflections. PS there's nothing wrong with meat, mashed potatoes, and washing it down with lots of milk!
"What is it?"
It's a major award; weren't you paying attention?
Somebody has given this a thumbs down and it hasn’t even premiered yet. I feel sorry for anyone who’s that miserable.
Probably still bummed about the election.
You're kidding? That's God awful. Wait until you actually see something and not like it before you thumbs down.
It was probably Scut Farkus.
The same 6 people probably didn't get Red Ryder BB guns for Christmas, either.
@@mattbriddell9246 bunny costume PTSD
"They eat alot of mashed potatoes in this family. Drink alot of milk, eat alot of taters..." Yes, that's bc this takes place in the mid west during the post WWII era and most families were working class, so they repeated meals quite often.
exactly
It’s pre WWII, December 1940, not post WWII era
Because the specific model of decoder pin Ralphie gets. But technically it’s during WWII as the US was involved in the war before Pear Harbor (1941) via assisted the allies with supplies.
But the original statement still holds true pre, during and post WWII.
We called the repeated meals "leftovers", which actually lasted 2 to 3 days.
Sometimes a new side dish was added, like corn or green beans.
My grandmother was from West Tennessee and absolutely as country as could be, but she never told me Santa would spit snuff in my eye if I was awake when he arrived. That's a good one!
First the mother knew damn well she was going to break that lamp by the look on her face. Secondly while I've never gotten physical with somebody but we've all had the "the wrong person messed with you at the wrong time when you were having a bad day" moment. And third the look on Ralphie's face when Santa told him "you'll shoot your eye out" 😅
Yes, soap was a real punishment, for myself and also for my kids.
My grandmother did it..
This was the early 70's but yeah, soap was soap.
Been there too
Not fun
@@richardrobbin2225 My grandma's punishment was to hit me with a riding crop. Much more effective than a bar of soap.
@@drakocarrion
Well curse words was soap, Always. Otherwise it was a switch (tree) or fly swatter 😥
Weirdly enough my mom had my brother put a bar soap because he had such a potty mouth but she only did it once
I was a kid in the late 60's/early 70's in western MA, and we were dirt-poor, and I remember my childhood being exactly this primitive and scary. At that age, this was my Xmas experience, pretty much note for note. Back then, culture was still driven by the older generation, so we were still doing things the way our parents and grandparents did things. That's why I love this movie. From my personal experience, it's a pretty accurate cultural snapshot for its time. Thanks for reading, and Merry Christmas. :)
The reason this movie is such a classic is because it is quintessential growing up in the 60's-70's.... There's so much in it that's a sign of the times, relatable for anyone raised during that time period and, really, anyone raised by someone who was raised in that time period, and educational for everyone else ie. children being unsupervised at recess, cleaning out the mouth with soap, ect.
The reason this movie hit home to so many, was it was such a glimpse into real childhood growing up in the midwest, and we had so many of the same types of memories.
You asked why this movie is so beloved. I don’t know if it will make a difference, but here’s my story of A Christmas Story...
It became a tradition in my family when TBS started playing it for 24 hours straight on Christmas Day. At the time, I laughed at the jokes and I identified with Ralphie when it came to that one Christmas present that you set your heart on. Especially when there was the new popular video game systems that everyone else had and I just wanted to feel like I was in with my classmates.
But it also spawned other traditions in my family as time has gone by. We now eat Chinese food every Christmas Eve/day (sometimes AT the restaurant). My mother has a collection of A Christmas Story items such as the BB gun, Leg lamp, and even the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin.
Over the years, I’ve become a parent and I’ve grown to really appreciate both the mother and the ole’ man. My son in particular, at the age of 3, had his heart set on Mario Lego this year. Seeing his face light up just like Ralphie’s made me giggle just like the Ole’ Man. It’s clear that despite the adventure that Christmas, the Ole’ Man loved his kids and against everyone else, he got the gift Ralphie wanted. Being able to sit with my son and help him build those Legos made me feel that same level of joy, especially seeing that joy on his face.
I know this is long winded, but the more and more we watch the film, the more and more I appreciate the aspects of childhood Christmas and adulthood Christmas. Christmas changes as you get older. For me, this film has spoken on that journey and I appreciate it every year.
"Would I ever watch it again?" you get to watch it for 24 hours straight every Christmas on TBS
Next to our traditional steak and shrimp (the only thing my brother, father and I were good at making) dinner we made for our mom... Watching one of the Christmas story showings during the 24 hr run with her is my second favorite tradition.
@@PB-tr5ze steak and shrimp? Good tradition. Yum.
I just love her reaction to this movie, I remember my mom telling that how it was back then, especially the snow suit scene. When the movie first came out it wasn't well received, but though the years it became a classic.
I got tinsel on my tree right now. Never knew it had gone out of fashion as some of the other comments mention. I remember my parents putting up the same mid 1960s Christmas decorations well into the early 2000s. Tinsel everywhere.
"Random strings of glitter" is called tinsel lol
My dad grew up in Michigan in the 30s and 40s and said this movie was a very accurate depiction of his childhood.
I grew up in Wisconsin in the 50's and 60's and it is pretty accurate for my childhood too (except we had TV by then).
I grew up in the 60's and 70's. We had mashed potatoes for dinner probably 5 nights a week, minimum. And I drank milk with every meal I ate, unless we had homemade pizza (maybe once a month) in which case we had soda (pop), practically the *only* time we had soda. As others have said...galoshes are rubber boots, and the shiny strings on the tree are icicles. They're basically very thin strips of aluminum foil. Some people just took a handful of then, and threw then at the tree, for a very random look. My Mom, however...put each individual strand on one at a time, carefully and methodically covering the entire tree. The rest of us helped some, but it was mostly her deal. The icicles alone probably took 4-6 hours to apply. And...because my parents grew up during the depths of the depression, we wasted *nothing*...so the icicles (which most people only pulled enough off to remove the lights and other decorations, and out the tree out on the curb with the icicles still on it) were carefully plucked, one strand at a time, and not allowed to get tangled up, and we're reused every year...for decades! And yes...putting a bar of soap in your mouth was a common punishment back then, usually for swearing, but also for any sort of speech-related offense...such as talking back. As I recall...Ivory was fairly mild.
The reason it has stood the test of time is bcz it reminds many of us of growing up in mid-century Midwest. Much of what you saw carried over from the 50s well into the 70s. Yes, kids got their mouth washed out with soap. Yes, we always drank milk at supper. Yes, potatoes were a staple, including dried potato flakes that were made into mashed potatoes. As our generation gets older and many of those traditions are lost this movie may have a limited shelf life.
The "Glitter strings" are tinsel. They used to be a very popular decoration, but you dont see them much anymore.
They look amazing on a tree, but are a hell of a pain to clean up.
We always used to do it but the mess was just so annoying
Even plastic, they were too much of a fire worry around electric lights.
we still have them here in the UK LOL
The main reason, they are a pain in the ass.
“Trading Places” has Christmas AND New Years. Just sayin’.
And revenge
Just watched it the other night. Love it.
If you watch “Trading Places”, you have to follow it up with “Coming to America”.
Upvoting this..
Beef Jerky time!
Growing up in the 70s, we kids (in the Midwest) had milk with every meal. After my dad died, it was soda pop.
This is truly my new favorite channel. I am so happy every time I see you watching these classic films. Your reactions are so great!
The only thing funnier than watching the singing of "Deck the Halls" at the Chinese restaurant is watching a millennial watch it. Your reaction was priceless.
Yes. My childhood was in the 80s and politically incorrect jokes weren’t taken seriously like they are today.
The Chinese restaurant would be the only thing open on Christmas for religious reasons.
"Has an icicle ever killed anybody?"
John Mcclaine would like a word with you ...
Had the same thought.
Ask the CIA
I just read the other day, the scene with the duck head, they didnt let the actress know about the whole scene and that was her real reaction.
9:47 Soap in the mouth was a VERY real punishment! It was still common as recently as the late 1980s when I was a kid. I had it used on me once, and it not only tasted terrible, it also left a burning sensation in my mouth for about an hour afterwards. My sister once called me a forbidden word and was warned she might get the soap treatment. Her response was, "I don't care. I LIKE soap! It's yummy!" Her sentence was commuted from soap to three days of grounding (she probably would have preferred the soap in hindsight, as she was the "social butterfly" type). With her kids, she now uses a similar punishment, but with one of the more powerful kinds of hot sauce instead of soap.
When your daddy's Kolchak, strange things will happen.
Kolchak RULES.
Best comment ever!!
The Night Stalker. Showing your age, are you?
@@DK-ed7be
;-D How old would you think I was if it was Topper I reminisced?
@@DK-ed7be I now have the theme going through my head ;)
“Do you like some milk?” Literally EVERY movie Ashleigh has seen EVERYONE has milk to relieve stress or anxiety. Story of our lives.
I KNOW AND IM OVER IT
Have a warm glass of milk you'll feel better!
@@awkwardashleigh I think I can explain why this pops up in media. When people are babies they are given milk that is warmed up so they will fall asleep so logically warm milk would be given to help people fall asleep.
@@jamesmoyner7499 milk contains the same sedative that turkey has, tryptophan, which is activated when heated.
@@jamesmoyner7499 Exactly this. It was a folk remedy for pretty much anything stress or anxiety related for...pretty much up until the 80s/90s when consumption of milk fell out of fashion. It's why the dairy industry started those "Got Milk?" commercials to try to reverse the trend.
Love ya Ash and Beans and thanks for being so considerate of people who may not for whichever reason to not have someone to spend the holidays with. You all are amazing and always put a smile in my face ! 🙂
It's amazing how many channels react to the same movies you do after you watch them.
"Why does my hair look so big?!?" It's a prerequisite for going back to the '80s.
I believe it honestly.
I mean, the movie is set in the 40s.
@@drakocarrion When they also had big hair.