It may be more than 30 years old, but love for the iconic holiday film “A Christmas Story” is only growing. From being able to spend the night in the actual house featured in the movie to news that “A Christmas Story Live!” is headed to our TVs this December, we just can’t get enough of the beloved tale of a boy named Ralphie trying to convince everyone around him that he should get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.
Soon, fans of the film may have something new to enjoy: A LEGO version of Ralphie’s home, complete with characters and even a working leg lamp (!!!). But the LEGO house isn’t for sale just yet—and in fact will only be available for your future holiday wish lists if it gets enough support.
It all started when Jason Middaugh of Syracuse, New York, designed a LEGO version of his lake cottage for his then 8-year-old daughter, Jane.
“When I was a kid, I was a big LEGO collector, and as an adult I still had all of my childhood sets fully assembled in boxes,” Middaugh told Simplemost. “When my daughter, Jane, became interested in LEGOs (beyond wanting to eat them), we cracked the boxes open, dusted them off, and set them up. She was so interested in my old sets, I thought it would be fun to try and create a little custom set for her.”
After his wife suggested he submit the cottage idea to LEGO, he did a little research and stumbled upon LEGO Ideas, a formal process for submitting ideas for new sets. He then realized their summer cottage was a bit too custom and personal—but because the sets for “Ghostbusters,” “Back to the Future,” and “The Big Bang Theory” all began via LEGO Ideas, “A Christmas Story” fit perfectly.
“‘A Christmas Story’ is such an iconic film and somehow defies logic to become more popular each year,” Middaugh said. “I immediately thought that ‘A Christmas Story’ house would be the ultimate set that I would want, my wife would want, my daughter would want, and my friends would want. Thus, I set out to prove to an impressionable 8-year-old girl that with some creativity and perseverance, anything is possible.”
So, both fans of the film, the father-daughter team decided to build the LEGO version of the house together in hopes of turning into an actual set.
“Building a custom set for my daughter was definitely special, but buying one in a store that we designed would pretty much mean that fatherhood would be all downhill from that point forward,” Middaugh said.
The house has everything, and we mean everything. From different versions of the characters (like “Can’t Put My Arms Down” Randy and “Pink Nightmare” Ralphie) to numerous Christmas presents, a turkey on the table (and the Bumpus hounds to destroy it) and even Lifebuoy soap next to the sink when you accidentally didn’t say “fudge,” nothing is left out.
We seriously have to have one!
But before this LEGO project can be constructed in homes across the country, it must first receive 10,000 supporters on LEGO’s website to go to the official product review stage. Although the Middaughs have had more than 180,000 views of the project on LEGO’s site, voting requires a LEGO ID, so turning views into votes has been a challenge. Their set has a little more than 7,000 supporters at the time of this story, meaning less than 3,000 more and the set is one step closer to being available for purchase.
Their “A Christmas Story” LEGO journey has been a pretty amazing experience for the family. They were invited to display the set in the lobby of the touring show “A Christmas Story: The Musical” last year and did another display in Buffalo when the musical came there December. In July, they traveled to the actual house from the movie in Cleveland for their Christmas in July event and even donated a copy of the set to their permanent museum collection.
Next up? Taking up an invite to the Chicago home of the writer and narrator of the movie, Jean Shepherd, to display the set.
“This thing has been pretty crazy,” Middaugh said. ” I could probably write a book on the experience.”
Interested in having your own “A Christmas Story” LEGO house? You can support the project here. Voting is free and all you need to do is create a LEGO Ideas account. If you’d like to follow along with the Middaugh family on their LEGO journey, just click here to visit their Facebook page.