Summary
On Christmas morning, Ralphie awakens to freshly fallen snow and presents under the tree. He searches around the tree for the BB gun but does not find it.
He opens a gift from his Aunt Clara but is embarrassed to show everyone what it is – a pink bunny onesie. Ralphie's mother makes him try it on and Ralphie is mortified.
Later on, Ralphie's father asks Ralphie if he got everything he wanted for Christmas and Ralphie says, "almost."
Ralphie's father gestures toward a gift behind the desk and tells Ralphie to go look at it. Ralphie's mother does not know what the gift is. Ralphie unwraps it and finds his BB gun. His dad helps him load the gun and Ralphie goes outside to try it out.
Outside, Ralphie tries the gun and thinks he shoots his eye out, but he realizes he just lost his glasses. While looking for his glasses, he accidentally steps on them and breaks the lenses. He tells his parents that an icicle fell from the garage and broke his glasses.
While Ralphie's mom is helping him, the neighbors' dogs run into the house and eat the Christmas turkey. The family goes out to eat at a Chinese restaurant and laughs through the entire dinner.
That night, Ralphie sleeps while clutching his BB gun like a stuffed animal.
Analysis
The end of the movie establishes Ralphie's complete transformation out of childhood and into the more complicated world of adolescence. When he opens the gift from his Aunt Clara, he is mortified to have to try it on in front of everyone: the gift is an over-the-top, head-to-toe, bright pink bunny suit, and its absurdity is both humorous and relatable for anyone who has ever received an age-inappropriate gift from a distant relative. This moment also nods toward the fraught time of adolescence, as it suggests that despite your growth and maturity, some people will continue to perceive you as a child and treat you as such.
That is why the next scene – in which Randy has fallen asleep and Ralphie is sitting alone with his parents by the tree – is so significant: Ralphie's father encourages him to look behind the desk, where Ralphie finds his Red Ryder BB gun. Notably, Ralphie's mother had no idea Ralphie's father was gifting him the gun, and Ralphie's father is ecstatic to see his son's reaction. That Ralphie's father is the one responsible for the gift showcases his own acknowledgement of Ralphie's maturation, much like Ralphie's mother demonstrated in the scenes prior.
Finally, the last scenes of the movie focus on bringing the family back together after the stress of the holiday, but not without the final disaster of the turkey being demolished by the dogs. The solution – to go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, traditionally one of the only places open on Christmas – will likely remind many viewers of their own disastrous Christmas holidays of the past.
Moreover, the family's demeanor in the Chinese restaurant as the workers attempt to sing Christmas carols and the waiter brings out an entire roasted duck emphasizes their acceptance of the absurd situation and brings them closer together. As the chaos of the Chinese restaurant unravels, the family can be seen laughing hysterically through the window.
The film therefore ends on a note of humor and nostalgia while endorsing the importance of family above all else during the holiday season.
