Watching “A Christmas Story” is part of the holiday tradition for many, a visit to the Cleveland house used in the filming of the movie takes it step further but how would you like the opportunity to go all out and go full Ralphie this Christmas Eve? It’s an experience that could be yours for a price.
The “A Christmas Story” Foundation fundraiser is underway that offers a two-night stay—Christmas Eve and Christmas evening—for four people and $800 in gifts.
"It includes a leg lamp, decoder pin, Lifebuoy soap, DVDs, board games, BB guns, all kinds of fun stuff,” said owner Brian Jones. “All of the Christmas Story stuff you'd want so Christmas morning you can go out in the backyard and shoot off the bb gun, try not to shoot your eye out," he added.
For Jones, 2016 has been a tremendous year. “We were up significantly in the number of visitors, so I think with the Cavs winning, with the RNC here with the Indians it just you know you could see that more people are seeing Cleveland they're thinking about coming to Cleveland."
The impact of the Republican National Convention he said wasn’t felt so much during the convention but after it, a result of the positive publicity they received.
"We had about 1,100 more people in September than we normally do and 1,300 more in October usually those are slower months they just kept straight on trucking right on through."
The overnight stay package will raise money for the foundation which helps out homeowners in the neighborhood with needed repairs to their homes for things like windows and house painting.
"We try to be the good neighbor,” Jones said. “We do bring about 65,000 people a year through the neighborhood so I just kind of figure the neighbors should also get something and benefit from and be kind of compensated for the hassles that they get some time."
In the past, the package has brought in $4,000 to $6,000, but last year the winning bid was around $8,500.
“People who have done it have said they had a blast.”
