L inda Campagna and her husband, Thomas Streib, two retired Army first sergeants who've always lived on a budget, are splurging $5,250 on a quick Christmas getaway. Their exotic destination: Cleveland.
They could have stayed home on the couch and, without shelling out a dime, had a visit of sorts to the house where they'll lodge. But watching A Christmas Story on TV isn't quite as much fun as actually sleeping in Ralphie's bed.
"We're spending Christmas Eve in the Christmas Story house," Campagna said. "We are going to eat a Chinese turkey dinner, which I guess is duck. And the" - cue Italian accent - "FRAGILE box will be delivered to the house. And there will be four decoder pins in the mailbox. And we get to take the leg lamp that gets delivered home. And the next morning - the blue bowling ball under the Christmas tree, a can of Simoniz, the pink bunny suit. And we'll also get bars of Lifebuoy." (In case anyone lets a certain four-letter word slip.) "And there'll be two Red Ryder BB guns behind the desk."
If you've seen the 1983 movie, you'll understand. If you haven't, well, I don't know how I'd begin to explain.
Campagna and Streib both work for Boeing in Annapolis Junction and live over the Pennsylvania line in Stewartstown. They won the right to live out a film-fantasy Christmas by outbidding other fans in an eBay Giving Works Charity auction.
The house itself was sold on eBay a few years back, and Brian Jones, a fan out in California, bought it, restored it, and opened it for tours. Giving Works approached Jones about offering a night there as a fundraiser. They let him choose the charity, and he picked The Wounded Warrior Project.
The cause, Campagna said, "definitely resonated with us."
As does the movie, needless to say.
"When my husband and I first met, it was during the summer and we were talking about movies and he said, 'You've never seen this movie?' " Campagna said.
So they rented it. In July. It was love at first viewing.
The couple's three grown daughters won't be joining them for the holiday. But just like everyone back at Boeing, they're eager to see the pictures.
"They especially want a picture of my husband in the pink bunny suit."
'$1,000 Charity Martini'
Here's a gift idea for last-minute Christmas shoppers out there: the Capital Grille in Baltimore and elsewhere is offering the "$1,000 Charity Martini."
