For the scene in which Flick's tongue sticks to the flagpole, a hidden suction tube was used to safely create the illusion that his tongue had frozen to the metal.



Darren McGavin ad-libbed the profane rants while fighting with the furnace. He said he speaks gibberish the entire time because it was almost impossible for him to ad-lib angry words without actual profanity. He did this in order to ensure a PG rating and it would be deemed inappropriate for a family friendly film.



According to Peter Billingsley (young Ralphie) in the DVD commentary, the nonsensical curses that Ralphie exclaims while beating up Scut Farkus were scripted, word for word.



In 2005, the 19th-century Victorian home used for the exterior shots of the Parker family home was put up for auction on eBay. The Cleveland, Ohio, home was purchased for $150,000 by an avid fan of the film named Brian Jones. Jones then spent the following year restoring the home to the way it looked on screen. The exterior was completely restored and the interior was renovated to match the interior of the home shown in the movie (parts of the interior were actually filmed in a Toronto studio). On November 25, 2006, the home finally opened its doors as a tourist attraction. Jones spent close to $500,000 in preparation for this grand opening. In addition, he also purchased a house across the street and converted it into a gift shop and museum dedicated to the film and the house.



Tedde Moore was eight months pregnant at the time of filming. Miss Shields could not be shown as an unmarried mother in the 1940s, so the filmmakers padded the rest of her to match her belly, making her just appear stout.

Continuity

When Scut Farkus surprises Ralphie and crew by hanging down from the crawling bars, the tail on his cap changes from hanging down to tucked into his coat depending on the shot.

When the radio announcer recites the code to decipher, he says the number 12 at least twice. It is known that 12 is the letter "B" since it is the first number given. But there is only one "B" in the decoded phrase "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

Randy gets pushed down Santa's slide first. Ralphie soon follows. When he lands at the bottom, Randy is nowhere in sight. But when their parents come by to pick them up, both Randy and Ralphie are sitting in the cotton snow.

After Flick returns to the classroom from being rescued stuck to the pole, the teacher assigns the class "a theme." The cursive A written on the chalkboard has an obvious leading ascender. The shot cuts to Ralphie, then back to the teacher. In this shot, the cursive A has no leading ascender.

The mashed potatoes disappear and reappear on Randy's face between shots during the dinner scene ("Show Mommy how the piggies eat").



Factual errors

In the end titles, Melinda Dillon's name is misspelled "Dillion."

Contrary to popular misconception, the encoded messages from the "Little Orphan Annie" radio program were not plugs for Ovaltine, but instead were teasers for the next episode.

In the Chinese restaurant scene, the staff has trouble pronouncing the "L" sound in Christmas songs, to much comedic effect. However, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) speakers generally have no trouble with "L" sounds. The stereotype is generally about Japanese speakers and is somewhat accurate as the Japanese language has no "L" sound and it often sounds as an "R" when pronounced by a native Japanese speaker.

In the two scenes when Ralphie is checking the mail in the mailbox, the mailbox's red flag is in the "up" position, indicating there is mail to be picked up. It is assumed Ralphie is checking the mailbox after mail has been delivered, in which case a postal carrier would move the flag to the "down" position after placing mail in the mailbox.

According to the Daisy Air Rifle manufacturers on the Special Edition DVD documentary on the history of the Red Ryder BB Gun, the gun did exist except for one error in the story: The gun did not have a compass and sundial as mentioned in the movie. According to the historians, writer Jean Shepherd confused the Red Ryder gun with another rifle that did have those features. But because the story and screen play were scripted to have the compass and sundial, guns had to be specially made for the movie.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

The wall clock in Ralphie's kitchen has no power cord. Battery-powered wall clocks did not exist in 1940, but wall clocks were often mounted on a recessed power receptacle and were plugged in.

There are numerous contradictory clues to what year the film is set in. Most references suggest 1939 or 1940, but other details move the setting anywhere along the line between 1936 to 1948. There is a conspicuous lack of references to WWII, even though a WAC (Women's Auxiliary Corps) officer is seen in wartime uniform in an early scene. The story represents quite realistically the hyperbolic effect of nostalgia on memory. Any adult story teller, reflecting back on their childhood years, would naturally merge a few memorable events and random details, not always in exact chronological order. It is more likely that the movie is meant to depict the atmosphere of the time period overall, rather than being a historically accurate recreation of a specific year.

The Old Man thanks Mother on Christmas morning for a blue bowling ball, yet was unable to distinguish blue Christmas lights the previous evening. This was probably just The Old Man's stubborn refusal to admit that he was mistaken, rather than color-blindness.

At the beginning of the movie, there is a set of monkey bars in the backyard next to the shed (it is used when Ralphie is fighting Black Bart's gang). On Christmas morning, Ralphie opens the window and looks outside; the camera pans slowly over the backyard and the monkey bars are no longer there. Response: The entire Bart's gang scene is in Ralphie's imagination. Ralphie imagined they owned monkey bars.

When Flick gets his tongue stuck on the flagpole, the fire department has to come and help him. On the truck it says 'Chippawa.' While the fictional town was 'Hohman,' Indiana, the fire truck may belong to a subordinate township, as many cities comprise multiple townships of differing names.



Revealing mistakes

Before Ralphie and Randy get in line to visit Santa in Higbee's Department store, The Wizard of Oz (1939) characters pass by, and the witch tries to talk to Ralphie, who won't interact with her because he's busy 'thinking'. Watch Randy's face in this scene as he comes out of character for a moment and smiles at a scared little girl, who is off camera. She was afraid of the witch during rehearsal, and never really was able to handle her presence.

In the opening scene, a streetcar is shown on the street, but there are no overhead wires or tracks for it to run on.

The school's white real flagpole can be seen in the establishing shot of the school (appearing to the left of the school due to the angle). The fake flagpole created for the movie was placed behind the school's playground.

When the fuse blows while the Parkers are decorating the Christmas tree, the room goes completely dark despite the roaring fire in the fireplace behind Ralphie and Randy.

The Higbee's Santa exclaims "Oh, we have a wet one" and then later asks for a towel when the boy in light gray pants sits on his lap, but when the boy is lifted off it's apparent his pants are completely dry.



Anachronisms

A kid in a classroom scene has a The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) digital watch.

A 1980s math book is sitting on Miss Shields' desk.

The toy wagons in the window of Higbee's Department Store have the 1980s "Radio Flyer" trademark.

The wheels on the wagons in the Higbee's store window have bright red plastic hubcaps. Radio Flyer used larger silver metal hubcaps on their wagon wheels until well into the '60s.

When the kids are gazing into the store window Christmas display, the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls are Knickerbocker Toy Company dolls from the 1970s.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

The fight the smelly hounds are having over the turkey in the kitchen is in reverse. The dogs seen entering the shot are walking backward; the sound is not backward though.

When Ralphie blurts out "Schwartz" and his mom calls Mrs. Schwartz, the voice of the kid receiving the spanking on other end of the phone is not RD Robb, the Schwartz actor. If you listen closely, it is actually the voice of the Flick actor, whose name is, oddly, Scott Schwartz.

As the family is driving home from the Christmas tree lot, when The Old Man says "Dad gum it! Blow out!," his words don't match his lips. This appears to have been a looped line of replaced dialogue.

After the restaurant owner chops off the duck's head, someone can he heard laughing off-screen.



Crew or equipment visible

In the first scene which has The Old Man going down to the basement to do battle with the furnace, you can see a crew member's foot quickly disappear from the shot in the next room just as The Old Man crosses the kitchen and is about to open the basement door.

Shadows of the crew on a kitchen chair when Randy is in the cabinet, worrying about Ralph getting killed by their father (for fighting) when he comes home.

When Black Bart is escaping from Ralphie's backyard, you can see a crew member's head skimming the top of the fence as they are leading the horse from left to right then again from right to left as they leave the horse for Black Bart.

During the Christmas tree decorating scene, when the electricity on the socket explodes, it is dark. As The Old Man moves his head in the dark, there are two stage lights clearly reflected on the window.

When Ralphie comes up to the house in the "blind because of soap poisoning" dream sequence, a crew member can be seen reflected in his sunglasses. Additionally, one of the stage lights is reflected in his glasses later on in the sequence.



Errors in geography

When the red and cream trolley goes by, the emblem on its side is for the TTC, the Toronto Transit Commission.

On the front of the radio in the living room is a red light in the dial. The light is supposed to be green because it is not actually a light. It is the top of one of the vacuum tubes that sits on its side. It's called a magic eye tube, and is not a full circle until a station is tuned in. This would also be a product of the movie being filmed in Canada as radios with magic eye tubes were very common in Canada but not in the US.



Character error

After Ralphie gets sent to bed after saying the F word, the narrator stated that Schwartz was getting punished from three blocks away. However, at the beginning of the movie, we learn that Schwartz actually lived two houses down from Ralphie.

When the lamp breaks, it makes the noise of glass breaking, but later Mother says it was made of plastic.

The song on the blackboard under "name this tune" is Mary Had a Little Lamb. The last two notes on the line should be "G"s, not "F"s.

The word Christmas is misspelled in Ralphie's school theme title, "What I Want for Chistmas," but was not marked as an error by Miss Shields. There are no errors marked on the paper anywhere to justify his final grade of C+.

The Old Man mistakenly refers to the Chicago Bears as "Terror of the Midway." The correct term has always been "Monsters of the Midway."