A Christmas Story Christmas review: A warm and worthy sequel
Review Overview
Worthy sequel
8Gags
8Sweetness
8Matthew Turner | On 18, Dec 2022
Director: Clay Kaytis
Cast: Peter Billingsley, Erinn Hayes, Julie Hagerty, River Drosch, Julianna Layne, Ian Petrella, Zack Ward, Scott Schwartz, RD Robb
Certificate: PG
Directed by Clay Kaytis, A Christmas Story Christmas is a legacy sequel to 1983’s A Christmas Story, which enjoys cult status in the US, but is virtually unknown in the UK. There have, in fact, been various film and TV sequels – including It Runs In The Family (1994) and A Christmas Story 2 (2012) – but A Christmas Story Christmas is the only one that has Peter Billingsley reprising his role as Ralphie, hence the legacy part.
Set in 1973, the film takes place 33 years after the events of the first film. Ralph Parker (Billingsley) is now grown up and has a family of his own, including wife Sandy (Erinn Hayes) and pre-teen children Mark (River Drosch) and Julie (Julianna Layne). When Ralph’s mother (Julie Hagerty, replacing Melinda Dillon) calls to tell him that his father has died, Ralph brings his family to his childhood home on Cleveland Street and tries to give them the best Christmas possible.
As with the original film, there are multiple vignette-like subplots. They include: a visit to the department store Santa; Ralph’s kids getting targeted by neighbourhood snowmobile-driving bullies; Ralph trying to get a book published (no prizes for guessing how that ends); Ralph having a familiar encounter with old friends Schwartz (RD Robb) and Flick (Scott Schwartz); and Ralph and Sandy having to save Christmas at the last minute.
Billingsley is charming and likeable as grown-up Ralph, while Joseph Al Ahmad does a frankly excellent job of sounding like original narrator (and creator) Jean Shepherd in the voiceover. Meanwhile, it’s genuinely touching to see just how many of the original cast members have returned – including Billingsley, it’s six cast actors in total, which says a lot about the widespread affection for the original film.
The script, co-written by Nick Schenk and Clay Kaytis (from a story by Schenk and Billingsley) finds a clever way of echoing the first film, while still doing its own thing. Sometimes the echoes are direct – the Santa visit, with Ralph’s kids instead of Ralphie, or a familiar dare – and sometimes they’re more subtle, such as adult Ralph offering his would-be publisher a bribe, the same way young Ralphie tried to bribe his teacher in the first film.
While these references understandably enhance the experience for those familiar with the 1983 classic, they don’t get in the way of the film standing on its own. As a result, there are a multitude of great gags, such as Ralph’s mother’s previously unrevealed loathing of carol singers – a brilliant, escalating, very funny sequence that allows Julie Hagerty to give full reign to her comedic talents. Other comic highlights include Ralph giving his kids some Santa-related advice (“Don’t let him kick you in the face”), Ralph realising that “no one over 40 should go sledding” and Ralph having a doom-laden fantasy about being in jail. That said, the film also lowers itself to a couple of low-key burp and vomit gags for cheap laughs, which is a little disappointing, considering the original never succumbed to that sort of thing.
In short, this is a worthy sequel that doesn’t quite hit the comic heights of A Christmas Story, but captures the same tone and delivers plenty of warm-hearted humour in the process. Stick around for the credits, which do a great job of putting all the recreated shots side-by-side (some you’ll have spotted, some you won’t), including the first film’s notable fourth-wall break.