It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

I'm declaring a victory without research.

This movie sucks. Ralphie can go jump off a cliff.

NO U

I'm with Frank.

Much like Konerko... overloved.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Never watched it.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Im pretty hammered right now.

I'm with Frank.

Much like Konerko... overloved.

No shit. Ralphie was only able to beat Scut's ass because he was on steroids.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

Now, somebody pass the vodka. And arthritis medicine.

Get the good, clear, block ice as well.

Keeps the cool while cutting the dilution of the arthritis medicine.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

The best Christmas movies are Elf, Christmas Vacation, Lethal Weapon, and Miracle on 34th Street.

Also if you fuck someone like they are a millionaire they might go try to be one.

I'd be o.k. with them bringing It's A Wonderful Life back...

I definitely agree that the scale is small and personal, but I somewhat disagree with the idea that nothing changes. I've always seen the movie as underlined by the beginnings of Ralphie's shift from childhood to adolescence, or at the very least a more adult, masculine mindset.
Think about each of the subplots of the movie:
Ralphie and his father are preoccupied by a sexually suggestive lamp, which his mother resents and destroys.
Ralphie and his friends are tormented by an older boy, but Ralphie eventually aggressively confronts and beats the bully (which his dad, if not directly approves of, at least is hardly bothered by).
Ralphie mimics his dad's profanity.
Ralphie becomes cynical and frustrated with the Little Orphan Annie show (and the blatant advertisement it pushes).
Ralphie becomes disillusioned towards authority figures (his mother, his teacher, Santa) who want to "protect him" ("You'll shoot your eye out, kid.").
He gets a hideous bunny outfit as a present, which his mother adores but his father immediately understands he hates, and allows him to remove.
And then, of course, there is the main plot: wanting a dangerous, manly present despite the warnings of the authority figures in his life. And, ultimately, his father understanding and giving him the Red Ryder BB gun (which, as someone elsewhere in this thread pointed out, his father seems to choose as a gift without even being directly told).
To me, these elements all seem to underline the same transition in Ralphie's mindset, which to me is a definite change, although it is small and personal. The movie has always felt to me like the story of a single Christmas in which Ralphie begins to shift away from seeking protection and comfort from his mother, and instead beginning to emulate and seek kinship with his father. A story of passing out of the envelope of childhood and into the rugged individualism of adolescence.
One of the last things he does in the film is lie to his mother - because now, he feels like she won't understand. Even when her fears (you'll shoot your eye out!) are true, he still feels that his father was right to give him the gun. Because this Christmas he is a new man, and the Red Ryder BB gun that he'll never forget embodies the true best present his father ever gave him: manhood.