Daily writing prompt

If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?

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If I could have dinner with any fictional character, I think I’d choose the adult Ralphie Parker from A Christmas Story.

There are probably wiser choices. I could sit down with Atticus Finch and talk about courage and justice. I could have dinner with George Bailey and ask him whether he ever fully understood how much his life mattered. I could spend an evening with Andy Taylor and hope some of his calm common sense rubbed off on me.

Those might all be meaningful dinners.

I’m not sure they’d be fun.

Ralphie, on the other hand, seems like someone who would know how to turn an ordinary evening into a great story. He was an entertaining kid, and based on A Christmas Story Christmas, he grew into the kind of adult who could still laugh at the disasters, embarrassments and strange family moments that shaped him.

That’s really what I’d want from the evening. I wouldn’t be looking for wisdom or life-changing advice. I’d want stories.

I’d want to hear what he remembered about growing up in that house. I’d ask whether his father was really as loud and unpredictable as he seemed. I’d want to know whether he ever forgave his mother for the pink bunny suit, whether Flick still blamed him for the frozen flagpole and whether the Old Man ever found another lamp quite as glorious as the first one.

Mostly, though, I’d want to talk with Ralphie about memory.

He understood that the things that frustrate us as children often become the stories we treasure as adults. The arguments, the disappointments, the family traditions and the moments that seemed disastrous at the time can become funny once enough years have passed.

As a writer, I’d also want to know how much of his story really happened exactly the way he told it. Memory has a way of polishing certain moments, enlarging others and quietly removing the parts that do not fit the story quite as well.

I suspect Ralphie would understand that perfectly.

Arthur Bach might provide a more entertaining dinner at first, but I’d probably try to match his scotch with my bourbon and forget most of the evening.

With Ralphie, I think I’d remember every story.

And by the time dinner was over, we might already be arguing about which one of us got to write about it.

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Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.