No one knows what Christmas means quite like Peter Billingsley. One could argue he’s the most prolific and most iconic Christmas movie actor, starring most notably in A Christmas Story. But he also starred in Elf, Four Christmases, and A Christmas Story Christmas. That makes it quite fitting that he teamed up with Raising Cane’s to do the restaurant’s annual toy giveaway in Times Square. New Leaf News was fortunate enough to be on hand for the event.
Peter Billingsley Opens Up On Raising Cane’s Giveaway
You may know Peter Billingsley as Ralphie from A Christmas Story, or even William Riva from Iron Man. Now, plenty of kids in the New York area will know him as a bit of Santa Claus. After helping Todd Graves and Raising Cane’s give 4,500 bikes away, he’s become one of the most prominent characters from some of the movies he’s in.
“‘A Christmas Story’ is about a boy who’s chasing down his best Christmas gift, right? And I know for many of you, that best Christmas gift is a bike. And I got my first bike right here in New York City, where I grew up as a kid,” Peter Billingsley said, perfectly summing up what this event means.
Few movies capture this idea better than A Christmas Story, which Peter Billingsley and Raising Cane’s CEO Todd Graves know well. It represents a shared ideology between the two, a dedication to bringing their dreams to life and sharing them with the world.
For Graves, it was a long-shot chicken restaurant that’s become a phenomenon, and for Billingsley, it was a little movie that blew up into a holiday classic. “It was a small little movie,” Peter Billingsley said. “It took the filmmakers 12 years to get the movie made. Nobody in Hollywood wanted to make this film. So it’s really a testament in a similar way to having a commitment to something and a vision and not stopping until you push it through.“
This event gave the actor a chance to use the costumes and props he kept from set. He has had the bunny suit, cowboy outfit, and the BB gun since the movie wrapped, and he got to put them on display at the Times Square Raising Cane’s for all to see. “It’s really special because I grew up here in the city,” Billingsley said. “So to be able to bring them home, so to speak is really, really awesome.”
Of course, that movie is decades old at this point, so many of the kids who got the bikes on December 3 hadn’t seen it and certainly didn’t grow up on it. That’s what made this opportunity so special to Billingsley. It was a chance to bring his classic movie to yet another generation.
“It’s one of the amazing things about the film because it came out in 1983 and so it had its own fans then and then that generation passed it to its children and now it’s getting passed to the next generation down,” he said. “So a lot of times when we do an event, we’ll see a grandfather, the son, and the grandchild all there for it.”
Obviously, the themes of Christmas are very important to Billingsley. That shows up in charitable work, which fits perfectly with the Raising Cane’s mission. It’s not just about chicken; it’s also about giving back to the community, perhaps with 4,500 bikes across the nation, for example.
“I can tell you it’s very genuine and I think you can tell that,” Peter Billingsley said of Graves. “So he cares deeply about people. He cares about these causes and his entire team does. So when the going gets tough, when you genuinely care about something, you just keep pushing forward because it matters to you.“
Billingsley has done plenty of work outside of the holiday sphere, including a foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What he’s best known for, though, are the Christmas movies. “Christmas has always been my favorite holiday for a lot of reasons,” he said. “And I think that, you know, as tough as the holiday season can be for people, and as stressful as it can be and tough on families, there is (9:36) really something magical about Christmas Day.“
He believes it can be healing, so he certainly did gravitate a bit towards that in his career. “Some opportunities have come up, you know, say yes to every one,” he added. “But when a great Christmas chance has come up, I’ve always said yes.” In answering the question, it dawned on the actor just how many holiday films he’s done.
“I just love Christmas. So I do. I love what it what it what it means,” he said. That love of Christmas and dedication to what it means helped drive him to partner with Graves and Raising Cane’s on such an event like this.
“It’s really a culture of people that care and that and that want to do good things. And that’s very, very evident.
And it’s very deep,” the Elf actor revealed. “When you think of partnering with somebody on a level like this to have the components that they have to have to be involved with the people that they are, made it such an easy yes for me.“
Conclusion
Peter Billingsley has spent over 40 years working to spread Christmas cheer (loud, for all to hear) through his work in Hollywood. Now, he’s working with Todd Graves and Raising Cane’s to spread their own Christmas cheer and continue all the charitable work they’ve done in years past and will continue to do in the future.
