What makes A Christmas Story worthy of marathon cable programming around the holidays? It found a perfect holiday formula: nostalgia + short mini vignettes leading up to Christmas + well observed, mostly ubiquitous family dynamics. In our era of neverending IP, I was very scared of the worst version of A Christmas Story Christmas, being a corporate mandated pointless retread. Well, it may be redundant, but at least this sequel isn’t nearly as bad as the worst case scenario; in fact, it really sneaks up on you the more you let it into your heart.
A Christmas Story Christmas takes place in the 1970s, something like 30 years after the original movie. A now grown up Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) is living in the Chicago suburbs, happily married to his wife Sandy (Erinn Hayes) with 2 kids, Mark (River Drosche), and Julie (Julianna Layne). While struggling to publish his first novel, Ralph learns that his father has passed away, just a week or so before Christmas. Fondly remembering his childhood Christmases with “the old man,” Ralphie goes back home to Indiana, to take care of his mom (Julie Hagerty) and put on a great old fashioned Christmas for his family.
I don’t think it’s a mistake that A Christmas Story Christmas has 2 Xmas’s in the title. This movie’s riding on double nostalgia: nostalgia for the past, and nostalgia for our greatest Christmas movie. Instead of just mimicing the first film through the eye of a kid, we’re getting Christmas instead through adult Ralphie’s eyes: the eyes of a writer/parent. There’s a risk there: adult experiences are not nearly as ubiquitous as kid ones, so Clay Kaytis and Nick Schenk risk losing the intense connection the original Christmas Story generated. The movie makes up for it by smartly having Ralphie return to his childhood Indiana home. Unlike cities, small towns can live almost out of time, preserved in living memory for those from there. A Christmas Story Christmas thus looks at nostalgia through adult experience this time. Hanging out with old friends at the local bar, dealing with old bullies, merging old and new Christmas traditions, and reminiscing about a lost loved one. Maybe not fully universal things, but a lot of overlap with the general population.
More of a mixed bag are the family stories on A Christmas Story Christmas. The real life loss of Darren McGavin’s “the old man” casts a shadow over the movie that keeps the story centered around Ralphie and people he interacted with in the first film. Julie Hagerty, replacing the wonderful Melinda Dillon, is just as wonderful playing Ralph’s mom, giving that great combination of sweetness and sincerity that fit like a cup of cocoa on A Christmas Story mornings. The movie is also firing on all cylinders when Peter Billingsley, Scott Schwartz, and R.D. Robb are just shooting the breeze as adult Ralphie, Flick and Schwartz, capturing that wonderful feeling of old friends reunited having a blast together. Will the giant spectre of the past, it’s the new characters that suffer most. I like Peter Billingsley and Erinn Hayes’s chemistry as husband and wife best: they’re both silly and klutzy dorks. Ralphie’s kids get saddled with a lot of repeat lessons from the first film. They’re cute enough, but don’t really leave a lasting impression since they’re side characters in the story.
One of the joys of celebrating Christmas is I get to go back to my hometown, and just relive some of my favorite specific memories. A slice of Palermo’s pizza, the ridiculousness of the bar complex that is 115 Bourbon Street, the Talley’s corner Christmas light extravaganza. A Christmas Story Christmas comes to life in those memories, understanding their power as years go by. Like a big movie hug, Ralphie’s adult adventures will make you feel warm and fuzzy, snuggled up to the fireplace next to someone you love. Insert Folgers jingle here…