Humorist Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the mid-west in the 1940s follows 9-year-
old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Ralphie pleads

his case before his mother, his teacher, and even Santa Claus himself, at Higbee’s Department
Store.
All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here, including the family’s
temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys’ experiment with a
wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; “The Old Man” winning a
major award from Italy; Ralphie’s fantasy scenarios, and more.
A CHRISTMAS STORY is a comedy in two acts, based on the 1983 motion picture A Christmas
Story, from Turner Entertainment Co., distributed by Warner Bros., and written by Jean
Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark. The screenplay was based on Shepherd’s 1966 book In
God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.