Adult Ralph Parker is remembering back to a Christmas season when he was nine years old living with his parents and his younger brother Randy in the northern Indiana town of Holman. Then largely known as Ralphie, he, like most kids, loved Christmas, his favorite time of the year. He often fantasized about things that he knows now would never happen, but that within a kid's mind is totally plausible. That Christmas was memorable for: his contest-obsessed father winning a prize for the first time in his life, that prize which would be the bane of Ralphie's mother's existence; his father's seemingly never-ending battle with the furnace in the house and the neighbor's pack of dogs; his mother's attempts to get Randy to eat, he at a stage when he never ate anything voluntarily; Ralphie's changing view toward the Little Orphan Annie radio program and commercial advertising; Ralphie and his friends Schwartz and Flick's changing battle with Scut Farkus and Grover Dill, their primary bullies; the triple dog dare Schwartz issued to Flick; and Ralphie's new relationship with Lifebuoy soap. But most memorable was what he wanted more than anything for Christmas: an official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle, aka a BB gun. As it looked increasingly like he was not going to get this prized gift, Ralphie went about trying to manipulate and outwit those he thought would either be the decision makers or influencers of that gift, namely his parents, his teacher, Miss Shields, and the big guy at the North Pole, even if he was in the form of a less than empathetic department store version.