You Can Now Buy Ralphie Parker’s House From ‘A Christmas Story’ | Travel

As I drive through Cleveland, the streets and sights of its charming Tremont neighborhood look eerily familiar. Then, as the mustard-colored house with green trim appears, I know just where I’ve seen this place before.

There may be no snow, excessively bundled-up boys, bullies with yellow eyes, or smelly, ravenous hound dogs from the Bumpus house next door on this early November day. But the giant leg lamp in the front window makes it unmistakable: This is Ralphie Parker’s family home from the beloved 1983 holiday movie A Christmas Story.

The classic film, set in the 1940s, tells the story of 9-year-old Ralphie (played by the bespectacled Peter Billingsley) and his desperate quest to get the object of all his Christmas desires: a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle. Jean Shepherd, an author and radio personality, narrates the movie, inspired by stories in his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd’s stories came from his upbringing in Hammond, Indiana, although Cleveland anonymously represents his hometown in the movie. Cleveland was chosen over 19 other cities to stand in for the Indiana steel town, because the Higbee’s department store management there was willing to let the crews film scenes inside the store.

A Christmas Story did reasonably well at the box office, pulling in about $20.8 million worldwide. But it was the rising popularity of home video and cable television that turned the movie into a megahit in the years to follow. It has long aired on a 24-hour TNT marathon on Christmas Day, cementing its scenes and lines in the memories of many adoring fans, myself included.

“People love this movie,” says Brian Jones, owner of A Christmas Story House & Museum, about the sleeper hit by director Bob Clark, also known for directing the raunchy comedy Porky’s.

No doubt some of these die-hard fans have been anxiously awaiting the new sequel, A Christmas Story…