The Making of ‘A Christmas Story’; the Fortunes of Bedford; at Home, Italian-Style

An early Christmas present from the Vanity Fair Archive. View in your browser | Update your preferences     A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks December 24, 2021 In need of a brief escape from family and festivities? Curl up with tales of home and holiday cheer this weekend.   Santa Gets His Claws The cinematic holiday once ruled by Irving Berlin, Charles Dickens, and It's a Wonderful Life now belongs to a little 1983 sleeper, A Christmas Story. Looking back at the movie's ingredients—the comic genius of radio star Jean Shepherd, the low-budget magic of director Bob Clark, a cast that seemed like any American family—Sam Kashner describes how a fluke project punctured the cozy sentimentality of Hollywood tradition. R E A D  M O R E »     And So to Bedford Nothing disturbed the cozy, dog-hair-on-the-sofa calm of Bedford, New York, a prosperous Cheever-country exurban enclave just 44 miles from Manhattan, until the late '70s, when flashy corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn and Ivan Boesky moved in—to be followed over the next two decades by a bevy of high-profile names including George Soros, Ralph Lauren, Michael Crichton, Tommy Mottola, and Donald Trump. In 1999, visiting the town's fabled hilltop estates, listening to longtime inhabitants, and meeting the recent arrivals, Alex Shoumatoff found Bedford was holding its own, burnishing brash new fortunes with the grace and patina of old money. R E A D  M O R E »     House of Dreams To a legion of design enthusiasts, Los Angeles's Stahl House is an emblem of California modernism. But for one family, it has simply been home. R E A D  M O R E »     Blowout Forget about Noël minceur, says Robert Hughes. Christmas should be a groaning feast of traditional fare: plum pudding and little sausages and a beautifully browned goose. R E A D  M O R E »     La Vita Brandolini Uniting two of Italy's most famous bloodlines, countess Cristiana Brandolini d'Adda, née Agnelli, has long been celebrated for her style, so evident in her homes in Venice, Paris, and Geneva. But at Vistorta, the 500-acre Brandolini country estate and vineyard, James Reginato discovered the matriarch's greatest achievement: a thriving, tight-knit family that cares more about the present—and a fine wine—than its illustrious past. R E A D  M O R E » Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. Sign Up Now     This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.