A Christmas Story House is a Must Visit for Movie Fans!

Most people know that A Christmas Story is one of my most favorite holiday movies of all time. I've dragged my family to Hammond, Indiana several times just to look at the window displays and get a family photo on top of Santa's Mountain (you can read about that here and here). So, you can imagine how bad I've been wanting to visit the actual A Christmas Story house that's located in Cleveland, Ohio. It's just a short drive (about 45 minutes) from Cedar Point, and since we go to that amusement park almost every summer, I've been royally pissed off at Jason every year since he's refused to take out additional time for the drive so I could get my visit in. Royally. Pissed!

When we started making our Canadian vacation plans, I put my foot down and insisted that since we would be going through Ohio on our drive, we were stopping at the house. No if. No ands. No buts. It was happening!

My mom went last year on a weekend and said that it was packed. The streets were jammed with cars lining both sides of the road, making it very difficult to drive down. We went on a Tuesday, arriving at about 9am, and we were the first people there. I was thrilled since it made for some great photo opps without extra people in the background. I would recommend a week day visit when school is still in session unless you like dealing with crowds. (Warning- this is a photo heavy post!)

The house doesn't open for tours until 10am, and you do have to go across the street to the gift shop to purchase entrance tickets. I believe the price was $10 for adults and $8 for children. You'll end up touring in small groups. There were about 30 people in ours, so it didn't feel too crowded in the house.

Once inside, the tour guide will give you a brief update on the history of the house, as well as some fun movie facts. Afterwards, you are free to roam around on your own for about 20 minutes. 

Since everyone was milling around downstairs trying to get snaps next to that iconic leg lamp, we started from the upstairs and worked our way back down. Our first stop was the bathroom where we thought it would be fun to recreate that famous soap scene and I tried my hand at the decoder ring. 

When Ralphie said the Queen Mother of All Dirty Words and blamed Schwarz in the movie, you could hear his mother screaming on the other end of the phone. If you pick up the phone in the hallway at the house, you can her Schwarz's mom screaming at him about saying that "oh, fudge" word.

Allison had a grand time in the boy's room, lounging around on the beds. 

Next, we explored the kitchen, where the table was getting ready to be set for the neighbor's dogs to come steal the Thanksgiving turkey.

Of course, the living room is probably the most popular room in the house. You'll see a replicas of the famous movie props, which you can touch and take photos with.

 

Mariah loved having her photo taken with the Red Ryder B.B. Gun! Thankfully, she didn't shoot her eye out ;)

All of the props in the house are replicas, but across the street in the museum (included in admission price) you can find some of the actual props from the movie set. Here you'll find one of the 6 Red Ryder guns that was actually used in the movie, as well as a piece of the blackboard where Ralphie daydreams about getting an A+++++++ on his school assignment. 

Between the museum and the gift shop, you can see the dad's car and the firetruck that were used in the movie.

What made the trip even more special for me, was we realized that we would be driving right by the schoolhouse with the famous flagpole scene on our way to Toronto. The school is located in Canada and has since been turned into a women's shelter, so it was closed off to visitors, but I did stop outside to grab a quick photo.

For any fan of A Christmas Story, I highly recommend making a trip to Cleveland for a tour of the house! It's worth the drive. I promise!

Do you watch A Christmas Story each year? What's your favorite holiday movie?