A Christmas Story House

Above are some photos from my trip to see the A Christmas Story House .

Overall, I'd grade the whole thing as a B/B-. Excellent idea. I'm really happy that someone recognized that there would be a market for this tourist attraction, and went out on a $500,000 limb to make it happen. And I'm pleased that Cleveland has embraced the whole idea and rallied behind it, with special weekend tourism packages, the stage show, last year's fundraising showings of the movie, and tons of local publicity. Of course, it's not from someone in Cleveland who came up with the idea and made it happen, because we are all apathetic and pessimistic. Surprise, surprise. The house itself is really pretty and comfortable, a nice restoration job. However, it has very little furniture. On the one hand this is good, because it allows them to pack plenty of people in at $5 a head and keep the line moving. On the other hand, what's the point of looking at a half empty house where most of the interior shots were not even filmed? Plus, all the memorabilia from the film is actually located at the gift shop across the street. So you're touring a house that's been well-restored to resemble a middle-class home from about 1940 in terms of color and fixtures, but has no furniture or sense of people living in it. I found that a little disturbing. The kitchen is the most complete in terms of having furniture and fixtures, and it's sweetly retro.

The whole project just seems unfinished, but really it's only been 18 months in preparation so we have to give them some credit. I hope they polish it up a little more. The line shows that there's a lot of interest in the project.