"Christmas Story" turns 25

The classic holiday movie “A Christmas Story” is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Today is the second of a two-day festival at the “A Christmas Story” House & Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, to mark the silver anniversary.

How many Christmas movies inspire such loyal fandom that someone would buy, restore and turn into a museum the clapboard house used for the exterior shots?

What other movie would attract about 35,000 fans to visit its museum ever year? The museum offers a display of props, costumes and photos from the movie. The store also sells decoder rings, talking Ralphie dolls and, naturally, leg lamps, according to a recent McClatchy-Tribune Information Services story.

“A Christmas Story” opened in theaters Thanksgiving 1983, and was not a box office success. But once it started airing on TV about a decade ago, it quickly rose to iconic status.

That’s probably because Jean Sheperd’s holiday story has so much about it that is iconic: from blue-eyed Peter Billingsley’s rabid desire for a classic boy toy, a Red Ryder BB gun, to the double-dog dares and the old tongue-stuck-on-the-frozen-flag-pole debacle, to the gruff dad who comes through in the end to the high-strung mom who knows just the right soap to make a kid regret a slip of the tongue.

It’s definitely one of the most memorable and quotable Christmas movies ever.

If you’re interested in visiting the “A Christmas Story” House, go to www.achristmasstoryhouse.com.

There is a new 25th aniversary DVD box set including cookie cutters, an apron and other goodies along with the DVD that you can read about at Amazon.com.