Peter Billingsleyas Ralphie ParkerThe story
About A Christmas Story Christmas
Decades after the original film, its narrator is a grown man and a struggling writer when news of his father's death sends him back to his childhood home with his wife and two children. Determined to give his own kids a Christmas as perfect as the ones he remembers, he finds the season keeps going wrong in very familiar ways, while old schoolfriends and his mother help him work out what to say about his dad.
The CineClaus verdict
A legacy sequel that works better than it has any right to, largely because Peter Billingsley clearly adores the original and lets the grown-up hero turn, slowly, into his own father. Some callbacks are simply old gags in new coats. What lands is the grief: beneath the snow and the mishaps is a man trying to stage a perfect Christmas for his children while working out how to say goodbye to his dad, and that gives it real weight.
Pair it with the original, watched the evening before, for a proper double bill.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: mild bad language, rude humour and a sledging accident are all manageable for primary schoolers, but a grandparent's death and the grief that follows may need a quiet chat with younger ones.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official PG certificate, and never looser than it.
