Movie in the Park in December? A Christmas Story in the Loop

By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 9, 2010 9:20PM

Just because it's winter doesn't mean we can't enjoy outdoor movies, right? We may have snow on the ground and temperatures in the teens, but this is Chicago. If anyone can layer up and watch an film outdoors in December, it's us. Just maybe not the whole movie.

Which is why the screening of A Christmas Story in Pritzker Park (the strip of green at State and Van Buren where Tony Tasset's giant eyeball sculpture stood earlier this year) next Thursday is so perfect. Of all the sentimental favorites in the Christmas movie mix, A Christmas Story is probably the easiest to dive into, watch one scene, and move along. The movie, which will be projected onto the wall of the John Marshall Law School, is the final film of a series from Chicago Loop Alliance's WonderLoop.

The 5:30 p.m. start time ensures that a lot of workers in the loop and after-work Christmas shoppers will have a chance to catch a few minutes of cinematic holiday cheer. A Christmas Story, set in 1940s Hammond, is heavy on generational nostalgia for a more innocent time but redeemed by funny and acerbic characterizations which gently puncture the Norman Rockwell-ness of it all. Between "Tongue on the Flagpole," "FUUUUUUUUDGE," "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out (parts 1-8)," "Dogs vs. Turkey," "The Beating of Scut Farkus," and our personal favorite "Leg Lamp," there is a scene in here for everyone.

A Christmas Story will be shown in Pritzker Park at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15.