“There’s a kind of timeless nostalgia that draws us into the movie, but Jean’s story is really about how difficult it is for us to find our way forward in this bewildering world, especially for children who find themselves in the middle of all of these problems.”
Media expert Quentin Schultze writing about A Christmas Story author Jean Shepherd
By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine
Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.
The moment I first saw this book, I was astonished that veteran media expert Quentin Schultze managed to write an entire inspirational book about a single movie, the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story. He’s produced 208 pages of wise and wonderful material, based on a movie that’s only 94 minutes long.
The godfather of this publishing genre, Robert Short, established this concept back in 1965 with The Gospel According to Peanuts. But, Bob Short had a big advantage in writing his book. He was able to drawn on the vast world of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts to distill his handful of spiritual and moral lessons for readers. In the case of Schultze’s new book—You’ll Shoot Your Eyes Out! Life Lessons from the Movie A Christmas Story—Schultze draws 20 lessons from a single film!
As we approach the 60th anniversary of this popular Faith & Film genre in book publishing, Quentin Schultze has pulled off a tour de force demonstrating how powerful this type of book-length reflection on film can be. If you love movies—and you enjoy regular spiritual reflections—you should order a copy of this book.
It’s an instant classic!
That was not the case with this “Hollywood Christmas comedy” that was based on a pre-World War II story by author, humorist and media personality Jean Shepherd (1921-1999). The first big problem the movie faced was a lack of confidence among MGM executives, who dumped A Christmas Story into theaters for a short run before Thanksgiving that year. Film Critic Gene Siskel immediately realized that MGM honchos had no idea of the movie’s true value. Siskel wrote: “A Christmas Story is a delightful motion picture that is doomed to box office failure. It would appear to be a children’s film, but it really is a whimsical piece for adults about childhood.” And, because it is a movie about remembering experiences associated with Christmas, it was simply out of synch for moviegoers in November. “Whoever booked this film this early should be shot,” Siskel concluded.
Siskel was right. A Christmas Story came, went and was forgotten—well, almost forgotten.
Flash forward four decades to 2024 and now we recognize A Christmas Story as arguably The No. 1 Christmas Movie of all time. Signs of that status are the annual “movie marathon” traditions on both the TNT and TBS networks. On TBS in 2024, that 24-hour, back-to-back series of re-broadcasts starts at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve. On TNT, that day-and-night marathon begins at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. And if you’re a true fan of this film—only on TNT, the marathon ends at 9 p.m. Christmas Day with a one-time showing of the 2022 sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas.
Recognizing a Phenomenal Storyteller in Our Midst
This remarkable transformation of an almost-forgotten “sleeper” into America’s defining movie about Christmas doesn’t surprise Quentin Schultze—partly because he knew and worked with Jean Shepherd and was one of the first media experts to recognize the shining facets within this gem that Shepherd crafted for us.
“In the 1970s, I was a new communication professor,” Schultze told me in an interview about his new book. “I was teaching but I was also continuing to learn myself about the nature of narrative storytelling—which I believe is the most potent form of human expression. I began looking around for people who were particularly good storytellers, especially in multiple forms of media. That’s why I started to follow the work of Jean Shepherd, who I could tell was a phenomenal storyteller in multiple media. I saw one of Jean’s first made-for-TV movies, Phantom of the Open Hearth, in 1976 and I was so impressed by his use of parallel plots, multiple stories tied together into one narrative. I knew this was someone I needed to watch and to work with, if I could make that happen someday.
“Then, in 1982, I moved from where I had been teaching in Iowa to join the faculty at Calvin in Michigan—and, with that move to Calvin, I decided to contact Jean. By the time we talked, even more of his work was appearing and I was determined to find a way to connect with him. I remember that very first time we talked, I said, ‘I’m a communication professor at a small college in Michigan and I am hoping to work with you on a course about your storytelling.’
“To my surprise, he responded: ‘Let’s do it.’ And that’s how he came to Calvin and co-taught a course with me. We spent time with the students picking apart his stories—exploring how he organized them, how he took us with him to various places, and how he would bring this all together as he concluded his stories.
“So, that already was unfolding when I first saw A Christmas Story in 1983. Because I knew so much about Jean’s storytelling, I could see his influence throughout the movie, which I thought was extremely well done. … I could see immediately that this movie was his home run. When I began to realize that it was bombing at the box office, I was stunned. How could this be? Maybe people just weren’t ready to understand what Jean was doing in this particular story.”
Schultze was determined to encourage for his new friend—and he was not alone. Film critics like Gene Siskel recognized and praised the little movie that all-too-quickly vanished. Through Calvin, Schultze and Shepherd continued to collaborate on conversations and courses over the years. Eventually, Schultze himself began writing books, nonfiction about faith and communication. But it took more than 40 years from their first phone contact for Schultze to dedicate this new book to his friend and the pinnacle of Shepherd’s career, A Christmas Story.
If this condensed version of the story is intriguing to you—about how a sleeper became a classic and how these two creative professionals formed a collaborative friendship—well, order a copy of Quentin’s book. If you’re a true Christmas Story fan, you also will learn in this book about some elements in that 1983 movie that Jean Shepherd did not like, once he saw how his script was reinterpreted by MGM. In other words, if you’re among the countless Americans who have collected Christmas Story memorabilia and watch the marathons each year, you’ll welcome the insider tidbits Quentin Schultze provides.
So, what about these 20 lessons?
The key to unlocking Schultze’s revelations about A Christmas Story is his central argument that the movie was primarily not intended to be “nostalgic,” which may come as a shock to many fans.
If you’re disagreeing with that argument, stop and think about this for a moment: Millions of Americans love the nostalgic feel of the movie even though very few of those viewers actually grew up in the 1930s. There is something about this movie—in fact, 20 “somethings,” Schultze argues—that seem to connect with our lives in bittersweet ways, sometimes funny and sometimes painfully thought-provoking.
Schultze said in our interview. “I remember Jean himself saying this to me: ‘The movie is really anti-nostalgic.’ The story is about looking back and saying: Things were always rotten, just like they’re rotten now. There were always problems.
“Sure, there’s a kind of timeless nostalgia that draws us into the movie, but Jean’s story is really about how difficult it is for us to find our way forward in this bewildering world, especially for children who find themselves in the middle of all of these problems. It is a hopeful film, because Jean survived a rotten childhood—and he knew that it was possible to survive such problems. That’s why Jean wanted to give us all these life lessons—these parables—along the way.”
Perhaps right there you recognize the depth of the connection between Schultze and Shepherd, especially if you are reading this article as one of Schultze’s thousands of students over the years. If so, you already know that Schultze’s own life started as “really rotten”—full of problems just like Jean Shepherd’s early life. Schultze makes no secret of this. In fact, it’s an essential part of his hopeful, pragmatic message to the world: Despite trauma, we can resiliently thrive and become part of healthy families and communities. On the front page of his website, Schultze tells visitors from the start: “I grew up in a kind of living hell.”
“I do think that’s one reason we connected all those years ago,” Schultze said. “Jean’s own father abandoned his family—and I learned a lot more about our connections as we taught together over the years. In the movie, this realization explains a lot about the distance between the kids and ‘The Old Man.’ ”
Childhood trauma is just one example of the themes Schultze explores in his book. One of the 20 “life lessons” Schultze describes in this book involves the kinds of “refuges” that kids learn to cherish. There’s a lot in the course of this book that is more light hearted, but that chapter on childhood refuges is serious stuff and I think it’s a good example of the kind of insight that readers will really appreciate.
I won’t spoil the experience of Schultze’s book by listing all the other life lessons, but I do hope I’ve made the case in this Cover Story sufficiently that you think about ordering your own copy to enjoy.
Back in the 1980s, when Schultze was first getting to know Shepherd—as a journalist I was getting to know Robert Short, the spiritual godfather of this spiritual-lessons-in-pop-culture genre. I interviewed Short multiple times over the years that I was serving as a religion editor for major newspapers. After all, it was quite an achievement to be “the first” in a new literary genre—and Short went on to sell more than 10 million copies of that original book. He remained a wise patriarch of the genre until he passed in 2009.
I know Schultze will be happy if he sells a few thousand copies of his book this winter. Over the decades, I’ve interviewed authors of all kinds of faith-and-pop-culture books from volumes on Superman to the Simpsons, from U2 to Disney. And I really do want to encourage this inspirational impulse.
Plus, I want to honor Schultze’s achievement with this new book. What Schultze accomplished here, along with some wise insights from his own friendship with Shepherd—is to unlock the connection between this particular movie and the wistful imaginations of a lot of Americans these days.
I also suspect that, like the movie itself, the audience for Schultze’s book may grow over the years as each year’s new wave of those movie marathons roll around.
So, we say: Happy New Year Quentin! May your book find a growing audience through 2025 and beyond.