Holiday Adventure: Road Trip To Chickasha's Leg Lamp Replica

The community of Chickasha is full of stories. Founded along a railway in the early 1900s, you can see signs of its past throughout the town. However, you could say the town's newest attraction stands out.

It’s a giant leg lamp. Yes, that leg lamp! It all started with one line in an obituary of Noland James.

"We find out in his obituary in 2020, that he says he invented the leg lamp prop that was used in the movie," James Cowen said.

Cowen is the city’s economic development director.

Noland James was a long-time resident of Chickasha, known for his love for Christmas. Few knew his claim of creating the supposed prototype of the iconic lamp featured in "A Christmas Story."

"Obviously there's a lot of different people that have a lot of different ideas about where this leg lamp came from,” Cowen said. “But you know what? We're going to have a little fun with things and say we think it came from right here in Chickasha, Oklahoma."

Cowan decided to lean into the theory of the leg lamp. Leaders decided to center their downtown revitalization efforts around America’s most famous lamp. No detail was spared in recreating it.

"This is supposed to represent a living room rug and if you look at the pattern, especially from up above, that's exactly what this is,” said Cowen of the brick pattern around the statute. "A Christmas Story the movie plays 24 hours a day on Christmas eve and Christmas day. It's become maybe the background to a lot of family celebrations."

Bret Kattus modeled his entire business after the leg lamp. “I love it,” Kattus said.

Kattus owns the Flower Shop Winery and Pizzeria. “We’ve named all of our wine and pizza after flowers,” he said.

Leaders hope the attraction will bring more people into town. “They think it's quirky, but they think it's quirky enough to drive 200 miles out of the way to stop in,” Cowen said.

That's exactly what one couple did while on a cross country road trip. "When we were in New York, I was on Facebook and I saw it. I said we've got to come, we're already going through Oklahoma. We've got to make a stop to come see it,” they said.

Car after car, people are pulling over to get a glimpse of the giant lamp for themselves.

You could say it's Chickasha’s own conversation piece. The town’s version of "A Christmas Story" to be shared by thousands of visitors for years to come.