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The winning bidder can spend two nights and two days with up
to three guests at the 120-year-old house used in exterior shots
for the film and whose interior was restored to look like the
movie family's home.
The auction on eBay begins on Tuesday night and runs for a week.
The winner can stay at the house on Dec. 24 and 25 and at a
luxury hotel on Dec. 26.
Among the possibilities are spending Christmas Eve sleeping in
the bedroom of the movie's 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who dreams
of getting a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas. Winners can also
bask in the glow of the "major award" the family patriarch wins
in the film, a lewd leg lamp his wife unceremoniously
dispatches.
Proceeds from the fifth annual auction benefit the Christmas
Story House Foundation, which provides grants for restoration
and upkeep of homes in the Cleveland neighborhood. Winning bids
have ranged from $3,000 to nearly $6,000.
"We've had a variety of people stay here," said Steve Siedlecki,
executive director of the Christmas Story House and Museum.
"Last year it was a couple. We have had a family of four and
once it was just one guy."
The house and museum have film props, costumes, memorabilia and
hundreds of behind-the-scenes photographs from the movie based
on Jean Shepherd's stories about the northwest Indiana of his
youth.
More than 45,000 people visit the house each year, most in the
weeks leading up to Christmas, Siedlecki said.
(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by David Bailey and Peter
Cooney)
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