On November 17, 2022 the sequel for the classic Christmas movie A Christmas Story came out to the public. 

Peter Billingsley who played Ralphie, starred at just eleven years old for the classic we all – well, some of us – know and love: A Christmas Story. Now he is starring in A Christmas Story Christmas, which was directed by Clay Kaytis with a script he co-wrote with Nick Schenk.

Ralphie, Peter Billingsley, isn’t 11-years-old anymore. Yes, it’s still being told through his eyes, but he’s now an older man with two kids and a wife. Every Christmas his parents, who were also played by the same actors as the first movie, came down to visit Ralphie and his family for Christmas Sadly, his father, the late Darren McGavin in A Christmas Story, died just before Christmas. After hearing after the death of his father, Ralphie tries to make this Christmas a “wonderful Christmas’ for the whole family.

I have seen  A Christmas Story year after year around Christmas time as a lot of people might have. It may have not been the best movie to ever exist but it was nice just watching it with family. That movie had “wistfulness and snark” as another review said. Ralphie had an imaginative mind. Sadly–but expected–this one didn’t. It was way less snarky, which is understandable because this movie is different. It has a sincere touch to it because of how Ralph is just trying to make this Christmas a good one. 

Even though it is a different movie it was heavy on nostalgia. Clips of the old man every twenty seconds and the same in head monologue for Ralphie. I get it you still want to include aspects of the first movie and the clips of the old man were nice. I just thought the narration was weird. In A Christmas Story, Ralphie was an imaginative little kid. Now he is still imaginative but it just seemed odd that they did the narration. The creators were probably just doing it because they did it in the first movie, but they could’ve done without it. 

There are some positives to this movie though. It still had the funny comedy aspect of it. The sledding for free drinks, Julie’s snowball incident, and so much more. If you watch this movie, you might have a few laughs. 

This movie also highlights a dad who may not be perfect but always tries for his family. If you couldn’t tell just from watching the movie Ralphie loves not only his kids but his family. So maybe he may not be a perfect dad or they may not have had the perfect holiday, but that isn’t what the movie was about. 

Overall, this movie was a joyful funny movie but it will never be as good as the first movie