The Christmas spirit isn't served up with more heartfelt warmth or observant hilarity than in the beloved adaptation of Jean Shepherd's holiday story in the A Christmas Story DVD.

In 1940's Indiana, nine-year old Ralphie (Peter Billingley) dreams of his ideal Christmas gift: a genuine Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Air rifle. But when gruff dad (Darren McGavin) and doting mum (Melinda Dillon) regularly respond with "You'll shoot your eye out!" Ralphie mounts a full-scale, hint-dropping, Santa-begging campaign.

He also endures all kinds of childhood calamities from snowsuit paralysis to the yellow-eyed Scotty Farkus affair to the dreaded tongue-on-a-frozen-flagpole gambit. We triple-dog-dare you to unwrap a more welcome Yuletide classic