"A Christmas Story" House - Cleveland - TravBuddy

I have always loved watching the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story, every Christmas Eve and Day. It's my favorite Christmas movie. So while I was in Cleveland, I made sure to check out the house. It was recently bought and renovated to that in the movie. The house was actually always a multifamily home, and scenes in the movie were not actually filmed inside the house, but at a movie set in Canada. All of the outside shots in the yard, and in front of the house were shot here of course. The house is actually missing the dining room. There was just no room for them to add it without compromising the loooks of the outside of the house. Not everything in the house is exact to the movie, but it's still pretty cool. The leg lamp is prouldly displayed in the window, but it's not the original, the original, as you remember, was purposely broken during filming for the movie.
A Christmas Story House, now restored to its movie splendor, is open year round to the public for tours. Hours of Operation are Thursday-Saturday 10am-5pm and
Sundays 12pm-5pm.
Directly across the street from the house is the official A Christmas Story House Museum, which features original props, costumes and memorabilia from the film, as well as hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes photos. Among the props and costumes are the toys from the Higbee’s window, Randy’s snowsuit and zeppelin, the chalkboard from Miss Shields’ classroom and the family car.
Admission to the house also gets you into the official museum. The admission prices are Adults: $7.50,
Children 7 to 12: $5.50, 6 & under: FREE, Seniors: $6.50
After reliving A Christmas Story at Ralphie’s house don’t forget to visit the museum gift shop. You can actually buy a leg lamp, and they even have the crates with the "fragile" on them. They also have Lifebuoy soap, games, DVD's, Christmas Ornaments, something for everybody. I found the gift shop to be a little pricey, but proceeds from the gift shop help support and maintain A Christmas Story House and Museum. The owner of the three buildings, (house, museum, giftshop), actually spent a pretty penny putting all of this together, and really is going to have a tough time getting back what he put in.
While on the tour of the house, the tour guide talks in the living room for about 15 minutes, telling you the history of the house, and facts about the movie. After that, you are free to roam around the house, and back yard to take it all in. We were allowed to take pictures while in the house, with our flashes on. It surprised me, because while on the website before I went, it said flash photography was not allowed. So if that's the case, our tour guide didn't enforce that rule.
So if you are in the Cleveland area, be sure to check it out.
For more photos from my tour of the Christmas Story house, check out my Cleveland Marathon blog.