Sad tidings begin A Christmas Story Christmas, a follow-up film to the 1983 holiday classic.
Ralphie Parker (a returning Peter Billingsley, who also narrates!), now grown and an aspiring novelist, gets a dreaded phone call from his loving mother (Julie Hagerty) during Christmas 1973.
Peter Billingsley in 1983’s A Christmas Story (Credit: Everett Colleciton)
“It’s the passing of Ralphie’s father [Darren McGavin, who died in 2006] that calls him home,” says Billingsley, now 51. To honor his old man, Ralphie brings his own wife (Erinn Hayes) and their two kids to Hohman, Indiana, to have a magical holiday just like the ones he recalls.
Look for more familiar faces from the 1940-set original, like tongue-stuck-to-flagpole Flick (Scott Schwartz) and bully Scut Farkus (Zack Ward). And not much has changed for Ralphie himself, reports Billingsley: “He’s an eternal dreamer. He’s always fantasizing things.”
A Christmas Story Christmas, Movie Premiere, Thursday, November 17, HBO Max