When I was younger, my brother, sister, and I always begged my mom to rent this movie -- we absolutely loved it, but my mom could never find it on video so that we could own our own copy. When we moved to Orange County when I was 10, none of the franchise video stores (Blockbuster, et al.) carried it, and the movie soon became a memory. I'm 20 years old now, and recently my mom found it here on Amazon.com and bought it for us; rewatching it was quite an experience -- all of the small details (Ralphie escaping from Tommy's house, the boy who sings "I'm a-running," the sardine sandwich, Ralphie's trips to China and Australia, and the fact that you never see Charles Merriweather so that he remains an enigmatic figure) were exactly as I remembered them. For any adult, this is definitely a hokey late-'80s Canadian children's movie, but every parent should show this to their kids; I know I will. It is an original and all together delightful movie -- a must-see for anyone with an imagination, anyone who liked The Neverending Story, Alice in Wonderland, or the book The Phantom Tollbooth.