The family comedy A Christmas Story Christmas checks back in with a Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) that’s all grown up and a dad himself, to both a daughter (Julianna Layne) and son (River Drosche). With a super supportive wife (Erinn Hayes) who’s pushing Ralphie to follow his dreams, even if they don’t always succeed, the family returns to Ralphie’s childhood home from the 1983 original holiday favorite A Christmas Story to celebrate the holidays together and reminisce about old times with familiar faces.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Billingsley, who’s also a producer on the film, talked about why it took nearly 40 years for him to return to this character, whether there were other sequel ideas in the time since making the first film, what his producing partnership with Vince Vaughn has meant to him over the years, what made him decide to direct, what the original film and his experience making it means to him, those imaginative casseroles, why it was important that the relationship between Ralphie and his wife be supportive, and whether he’d ever want to return to this character again.

Collider: It took almost 40 years for you to return to this character for a sequel. So, why now? Was it this specific script that got you to do it?

PETER BILLINGSLEY: Yes. It’s a good question. You’re right, it’s nearly 40 years. We were developing this movie for almost four years. A few years ago, it felt like the right time to start to explore this. A lot of things had to line up to make it right. We were able to partner with (screenwriter) Nick Schenk. I was able to write the story with him. Nick’s written a lot of great movies. He’s written for Clint Eastwood. That was part of tackling the tone. The original is irreverent. It was a little mean-spirited, at times, but it’s real. So, to get that right, Clay Kaytis, our director, was able to produce with my long time producing partner, Vince Vaughn. We’ve made a lot of movies together. Timing lined up, for a lot of the right pieces. And, most importantly, Ralphie, as a father, was a great way in to explore this movie. What would he be like, as a dad? What would his family be like? Where is he in his life? And the passing of the old man is the passing of that torch now to Ralphie. That role in the family felt like a great starting place. So, I guess I had to be older. It was good that I’ve made a bunch of movies now, and tried to figure out how to actually get these movies made and done well. Timing is everything, and we got the original cast back, as well.

Were there ever times, over the years, where you got an actual script from someone wanting to do a sequel, and you just weren’t interested?

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, definitely. There were ideas to do things, and I had had some conversations with people about it, but it just never ultimately stuck and never necessarily felt right. For fans that watch this, I think they’ll see, in many ways, that this is an origin story for A Christmas Story and how the movie ends. They fit together. Having a purpose to want to make this movie was also something that was really needed. Otherwise, let’s just go make something else. We all do this for a living. We can find stuff to do. But if you’re [going to] jump into this, it had to be for the right reasons. The first [movie] is very coming-of-age. It’s a young boy dealing with a lot of experiences who becomes a young man by the end. This one is about that mid-life coming-of-age. Are you where you [want to be]? Has your life turned out how you want it? There’s that one last call to adventure for Ralphie, the chance to maybe have that.

A lot of people probably don’t know how long you and Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau have all known each other and worked together. What’s it like to have the consistency of a dynamic like that? What has that meant to you, in a business that really is anything but consistent?

BILLINGSLEY: That’s really well put because that is what it means to have friendships that last and endure in a challenging business. Vince and I met when I was 18, so that’s a longstanding friendship, and it’s genuine. You become like brothers, and there’s a lot of love at the core. I don’t have to worry about whether he’s trying to get me or not? That’s gone. It’s hard enough to make a movie, and to try to channel and find the ways to say the things you wanna say, so being able to move through with somebody like that has been great. I’ve done five Christmas movies, and I’ve done three with Vince. We just did another one this year, called Christmas with the Campbells, which is a Hallmark parody. It’s fun, and it’s a little more R-rated. It’ll be on AMC+ this Christmas. And Vince did Fred Clause and Four Christmases, so I think we keep getting drawn and pulled into Christmas movies together, which has been awesome.

Not every actor becomes a director. What made you decide that was something you wanted to do? Had you thought about doing that for a while before actually doing it?

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, I was always the kid on set who was very curious and had some good mentors who I would ask a lot of questions about cameras or lenses. I wanted to hang out on set sometimes and just observe or watch, and not always just run back to the trailer. You get called back for school, but when that was done, I would wanna come back and watch. Bob Clark, the director of A Christmas Story, was really helpful and a great mentor to me, so, it was a natural extension. Right around when I met Vince, I had moved out to L.A. to go behind the scenes and to shift my career and try to start pursuing that. This is a perfect storm for me, now coming back as an actor, writer and producer on the film.

Has A Christmas Story held different meaning to you, over the years? As you realized that it was something that would always follow you and that you’d always be remembered for, did your feelings about it or your appreciation of it change, or have you always thought of it fondly?

BILLINGSLEY: I certainly had a great experience doing it. I’m sure you’ve heard about horrible experiences on movies. Those happen. That was not one of them. It was a really positive one. Maybe it was a blessing that it wasn’t a success, instantly, because then it developed an appreciation, and maybe we all grew to appreciate the movie more. It’s been a long time. For a while, I’ve been able to disassociate and start to see what other people saw in it. For a minute, I wasn’t quite sure why everyone loved it so much, just because I was so close to it. But then, you get a little more separation, and you can see the filmmaking, you can see the choices, and you can see the decisions. That’s cool because you have a newfound discovery. The only other thing I ever did was the musical for it, so I studied it quite a bit when we did that, and then studied it a lot when we did this.

What was the strangest or most surreal moment for you, during the making of this, especially being surrounded by your former co-stars, who also are older now?

BILLINGSLEY: It was really an interesting coming together. We built all the structures in the Parker house, and all these other houses. I don’t think anyone from the original cast was scheduled to be on that street on the same day because everyone’s in different scenes, so I called them and said, “Guys, get down here. You’ve gotta see this. It’s here. It’s back. We did it. It’s all these houses.”

They came and were blown away. We took some pictures in front of it, and it was great for them to see. A lot of them said it was very emotional, coming back to set. It’s interesting, you feel the pressure, in a good way. You wanna get it right. You don’t wanna hurt or jeopardize something that’s before you, that’s great. Bob Clark, the director, and Jean Shepherd, who wrote the script and the source material for the original, have both passed, and you wanna honor them and what they did. All these things are in your head, but then you’ve gotta let go and be like, “All right, I’m Ralphie. He’s here, and he’s full of ideas. He’s gonna get published, and he’s got all these dreams.” You channel that and you dive back into the character.

The combinations of food in the casseroles that the neighbors bring over all sound so gross. Would you have eaten any of them? Were any of them seem appealing to you?

BILLINGSLEY: It was creative and inventive. Casseroles, especially then, were like, “Well, what’s in the cabinet? What’s in the fridge?” If you watch me in that scene, I don’t wanna take a bite. I’ve learned. In eating scenes, actors do not eat because you’re going to shoot that scene all day long, from multiple angles, particularly if it’s not appetizing. But those were real. We put that stuff in them. There’s the sweetness of the neighbors showing support for the family, and the mom who loves it, but the reality is that nobody wants to eat it.

I love how supportive Ralphie’s wife is. Even though things don’t work out the way he’d hoped, she still encourages him and doesn’t want him to give up. Was it important to you to have a relationship between the two of them that’s like that?

BILLINGSLEY: Very much, yes. The conflict didn’t need to be there. There’s enough conflict outside. That’s part of what I love about the original. That movie ends with them having a glass of wine and watching the snow fall. She just puts her hand on the old man’s back gently, and you know that there’s such a great love there between them. So, I wanted Ralph to have a partner, and Erinn Hayes is so great in the movie. She’s funny, in her own right. She’s taken this year to support him, so that he can pursue his dreams, and that’s sweet. Even in the end, when she says, “A year isn’t that long,” a deal is a deal and he’s gonna go ahead and honor that. She’s the one who really frees things up for him. She’s the one who, unbeknownst to him, delivers that out into the world.

Do you feel like this is it for you and Ralphie now? Have you put away the glasses for the last time?

BILLINGSLEY: Oh, gosh! It’s a good question. Until we feel inspired maybe to tackle it again. Who knows? It’s true, I wouldn’t have told you 15 years ago, “I will definitely play that character again. It’s just when.” It just worked and the timing worked. To have the great partners in Legendary and Warner Bros., we had the resources and the ability to do it.

A Christmas Story Christmas is available to stream at HBO Max.