In December 1973, 33 years after the events of A Christmas Story, Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) lives in Chicago with his wife Sandy and two children, Mark and Julie. Ralphie has been taking the year off from his job to write his first novel, but its excessive length leads multiple publishers to reject it. Mrs. Parker (Julie Haggerty) calls to tell Ralphie that his dad, "the Old Man" (played by the late Darren McGavin), has died, and the grief-stricken family makes its way to Hohman, Indiana, to be with her. She gives Ralphie two tasks: write his father's obituary and take up his mantle of making Christmas special for the family.Ralphie's children befriend one of the Bumpus kids next door and are bullied by two children on a snowmobile. Ralphie reunites with Flick (Scott Schwartz), who now owns his father's old tavern, and Schwartz (RD Robb), who still lives with his mother and has run up a large tab at Flick's. While leaving the house to go ice skating, Sandy falls, slips on ice and sprains her ankle.As Christmas Eve approaches, the family goes to Higbee's, where Ralphie miraculously buys everything Mark and Julie asked for while their children wait in line to see Santa. On the way back, Ralphie's car breaks down again and Ralphie accidentally injures Julie in the eye during an impromptu snowball fight, which requires a trip to the emergency room and a temporary eye-patch. All of the gifts are stolen from the car's popped trunk when the family is inside the hospital, and Sandy has little money left to replace them.Back at Flick's, Flick offers to forgive Schwartz's tab if he completes a physical stunt, the "Ramp". Schwartz succeeds and his tab is forgiven, but afterwards Mark breaks his arm sledding and Ralphie is rejected by his final prospective publisher. After some comfort from Sandy and remembering the Christmases of yesteryear, Ralphie suddenly gains a burst of inspiration and writes a piece that far exceeds the length of a normal obituary. However, he leaves it on the desk, needing to prepare for Christmas Day. Mark and Julie manage to get back at their bullies by building a snowman over a tree stump so that their snowmobile crashes.That night, though, Julie becomes upset after the tree's star falls and breaks. Ralphie, frustrated, goes out against his wife and mother's urging to find a new one. Because all of the stores are closed, Ralphie breaks into Flick's tavern to "borrow" the star from the tree. On his way out, he is caught and apprehended by Scut Farkus (Zack Ward), now a Hohman police officer. Ralphie is terrified at what Scut will do to him, but Scut brings him home, saying he owes Ralphie because their fight set him on a better path in life.On Christmas morning, Ralphie is confused by compliments he receives about his piece in the newspaper. Sandy reveals she found the obituary manuscript and took it to the local paper, and its high quality led to it quickly being syndicated. Ralphie is offered a new job as a syndicated columnist, fulfilling his dream of leaving the rat race and becoming a full-time writer. Opening presents, it is discovered that the Old Man had bought and personally wrapped very thoughtful gifts for the family shortly before his death. Much of the town soon comes to the Parker house for Christmas dinner along with Randy (Ian Petrella). After dinner concludes, the core family asks Ralphie to read his story about the Old Man. Ralphie takes a seat and begins to read, fully embracing his new role as the Old Man's successor as his narration of it transitions into Jean Shepherd's from the original film.