Continuity mistake: On Christmas morning when they open presents, the sleeves on the mother's robe move back and forth between rolled up and rolled down.
Continuity mistake: During the first breakfast scene, Ralphie's bacon is on his left on the plate, he takes one bite of it and now the camera angle changes to show the bacon on his right and a large empty space on the left, where the bacon was moments before.
Continuity mistake: As Ms. Shields lectures the children on what happened to Flick, the phrase "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is written on the blackboard behind her. But when she is done lecturing them, she turns around to reveal "A Theme: What I Want for Christmas" written there instead.
Other mistake: In the end credits, Santa's name in the song title "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" is misspelled as "Clause."
Other mistake: At the end when Ralphie takes his gun outside to use for the first time the shot bounces back and hits him, knocking him off his feet. His gun comes in from the side a second later like someone tossed it into the shot. (01:40:00)
Continuity mistake: In the Chinese restaurant scene, the opening shot through the window shows the worker directing the music with Ralphie to his right and he is facing the singers. In the next shot, the same worker is behind Ralphie and the singers are to his right.
Continuity mistake: When Ralphie is re-reading his theme to himself, there is a closeup shot of the notebook and his handwriting. In that shot Ralphie has his left hand flat but in the following shot Ralphie has his left hand in a fist.
Continuity mistake: When the dogs steal the turkey and wreck the kitchen, there's a scene of the table broken and no pot holder is on the table. In the next scene, there is a pot holder sitting on the broken table.
Continuity mistake: When Randy is getting dressed for school, his mittens keep appearing and disappearing from his hands.
Continuity mistake: When Ralphie's dad comes in after finding his Oldsmobile has frozen overnight, he tosses his hat onto the dining room table. It tumbles onto a chair next to the table. The next time you see the table, the hat has made its way to the table top.
Continuity mistake: In the school classroom scene, the teacher writes "Silas" in cursive on the blackboard and very emphatically dots the "i" in Silas with her chalk. The dot is visible then and even in the long shot from the back of the classroom, however, in the next, more close-up shot, as the students are filing past her desk and handing in their fake buck teeth, there is no dot above the "i". (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: In the second kitchen scene after Ralphie sits, the camera looks at the cellar door, where you hear the old man cussing up a "cloud of profanity that still hangs over Lake Michigan." The damper controls are sitting top to the left, bottom to the right. After the "accident" with the lamp, dad comes upstairs. The controls are now reversed, top to the right, bottom to the left.
Revealing mistake: One shot of the family opening the Christmas presents is from above; if you look quickly near the top of the screen you can see the ceiling cut away and even shadows moving on this area - obviously a set piece.
Continuity mistake: In the living room scenes, on the mantel in front of the clock, lighted candles appear and disappear during the movie.
Visible crew/equipment: Right when Adult Ralph says "A C+?", Ralph looks from his paper to the blackboard. Near the bottom of his rights glasses lens, you can see a stage light reflected in it, as well as the silhouette of a crew members head. Do not mistake it for the classroom light reflected near the top of the same lens.
Factual error: On Christmas morning when the Parker's are opening gifts, several Christmas songs can be heard playing in the background. Several of these were released long after when the movie is set (around 1940), particularly Bing Crosby's performance of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," which was released in October of 1951.
Revealing mistake: The wind up tank in the toy store window can't possibly be a continual display. Clearly a production assistant wound up and released the tank for the shot. It's not a toy that would be moving with the other display items.
Continuity mistake: The old man throws straw everywhere getting his prize out of the crate, and a lot of it goes on his back. The straw disappears when he climbs out of the crate.
Factual error: In the Chinese restaurant scene there is a Santa Claus drinking a Coca Cola poster on the wall in the background. The slogan reads "Sign Of Good Taste", which was not used until 1957.
Character mistake: Right after the firefighters have removed Flick's tongue from the flagpole, notice the police officer on the left (Flick's right). He is wearing his sidearm on his right but his Sam Browne cross strap is attached to his belt on his left. The whole point of the cross strap is to support the weight of the sidearm, so the officer is wearing it backwards.
Suggested correction: With exception of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Sam Browne belt shoulder strap is typically worn over the right shoulder and attached to the belt on the left side.
This is correct for military uniforms - once again, the Sam Browne is used to support the weight of a weapon (in the military, this would be an officer's sword, always worn on the left side). However, for police uniforms, the shoulder strap is worn over whichever is the non-dominant shoulder (usually the left). Once again, this is to support the weight of the duty weapon. If you look at agencies such as the Kansas Highway Patrol, New Mexico State Police, and various police honor guards throughout the U.S., you will see that the strap is worn primarily over the left shoulder, since most people are right-handed and therefore would wear a duty weapon on their right side.