The Leg Lamp is Mr. Parker's award in Bob Clark's 1983 film, A Christmas Story. Mr. Parker loves the lamp because it is his award for completing a crossword puzzle about great characters in American literature in the newspaper. It is an iconic part of pop culture and popularizes A Christmas Story further.
History[]
A Christmas Story: I Won! I Won![]
In the ninth scene of the film, "I Won! I Won!" Mr. Parker comes home (being terrorized by the neighbor's hound dogs on his way in the house) and declares he won a crossword puzzle contest, and his "Major Award" will be arriving later that evening. Although he's uncertain about what he's specifically won, he has a colleague who won a bowling alley in this contest. Mrs. Parker shockingly questions how a bowling alley is going to be delivered to the house, to which Mr. Parker laughingly claims it'll just be the deed of ownership that gets sent to them, and not the actual bowling alley itself!
A Christmas Story: A Leg Of Lamp?[]
In the eleventh scene of the film, "A Leg Of Lamp?", Mr. Parker's "major award" comes in the mail, in a huge box, although no one knows what it actually. The box has the word "Fragile" written on it, which Mr. Parker mispronounces as "Fra-Gee-Lay", and questions if it's Italian, but Mrs. Parker corrects him. He opens the box, and initially only sees synthetic fibers and declares there could be anything in there. After searching through the fibers, going as far as to climb into the box and throwing some through the house, he finds a lamp in the shape of a female human leg. Initially he thinks it's a statue, but then finds the lampshade, and declares it to be a lamp. Mrs. Parker finds it inappropriate and is embarrassed about it, and makes every attempt to deter Ralphie, who is enamored, from looking at it. Mr. Parker, sets up the lamp (nearly causing a fuse break in the process) in the front window, and goes out into the street to see how it looks from there. Many people from the neighborhood come to see it out the window, including the Parkers' dim-witted neighbor, Swede. However, Mrs. Parker switches the lamp off before it goes any further.
A Christmas Story: Tree Bargaining
The Leg Lamp makes another appearance, and Mrs. Parker shuts it off saying she doesn’t want to waste electricity.
A Christmas Story: A Fake Break?[]
In the nineteenth scene of the film, "A Fake Break", Mrs. Parker goes to water her plants with a suspicious look on her face. Mr. Parker is fixing the furnace, when he hears a crash. When he investigates, Mrs Parker clams she accidently knocked the lamp over while she was watering her plants. Mr. Parker is outraged and declares she did it on purpose out of jealousy because he won it. Mrs. Parker angrily declares that she considered the lamp the ugliest thing she had ever seen in her entire life! Mr. Parker askes for some glue, but Mrs. Parker claims there is none, causing him to accuse her of using all the glue on purpose. He storms out to buy some glue, and he attempts to repair the lamp, but ultimately fails. Mr. Parker defeatedly gathers up the remains of his "shattered major award", later that evening, buries them in the backyard. Ralphie later recalls hearing "Taps" being played softly afterwards.