Christmas in July returns this weekend to Lehighton’s Mahoning Drive-In Theater on Seneca Road, located just off Route 443, with 35 mm screenings set for two holiday classics.

“A Christmas Story,” the 1983 holiday perennial depicting Ralphie Parker’s desire to receive a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, will screen Friday and Saturday.

Zack Ward, immortalized as the film’s menacing bully Scut Farkus, will meet fans both nights, while the Mahoning production team will create a “Christmas Story”-themed photo op.

Also on both nights, the 1954 musical “White Christmas” will follow “A Christmas Story.” Gates open at 6 p.m., with show time at sundown.

“We have easily done this for July five times, including a horror edition last season,” said Virgil Cardamone, a partner, booker and curator with the drive-in. “We played ‘Christmas Story’ with ‘Elf’ a few years back, but have never screened ‘White Christmas.’”

Tradition and nostalgia, Cardamone believes, fuel the films’ enduring popularity.

“Nostalgia is like a drug. You long for a simple time in this insane world. A classic film with the ones you love under the stars is a perfect escape.”

A special visit

Christmas in July will mark Ward’s Pocono debut. A resident of California’s Studio City, Ward- son of actress Pam Hyatt - appeared in commercials for Dolly Madison Ice Cream and Jell-O, among others, prior to “A Christmas Story.”

After participating in a cattle call for the part of Scut, Ward - a childhood-bullying victim - landed his first film role. Director Bob Clark, however, made a switch upon seeing the Canadian-born actor with Yano Anaya, who played Scut’s cohort Grover Dill.

“He’s sitting down, looking at you and realizes you’re a foot taller than him,” Ward recalled. He said, ‘You get his lines.’ Scut was originally a sidekick. He turned into the lead bully.”

During filming, Clark kept Ward away from co-stars Peter Billingsley (Ralphie), Ian Petrella (Randy), Scott Schwartz (Flick) and R.D. Robb (Schwartz).

“He did that on purpose, to create a separation between the bullies and heroes,” Ward said. “The only time they saw us was when we were attacking them.”

A key moment in the Indiana-set film - based on the works of “Christmas Story” narrator Jean Shepherd - comes when Ralphie retaliates and tackles Scut.

Billingsley’s idiot-string-enhanced leather mittens, soaking wet from the snow and refreezing, did a number on Ward. He’s likened the experience to “being hit in the face by frozen pork cutlets.”

Life after the movie

While the public now separates Ward from his bully character, that was not always the case.

“I was mid-20s, doing a ton of bad-guy guest-starring roles,” he said. “There was a negative connotation. People would get into arguments with me. It was odd, frustrating.

“As I’ve gotten older,” he continued, “people are like, “Oh, you’re that guy. Cool.’ It’s like being Norm on ‘Cheers.’ When you walk in a place you’ve never been, people turn to look at you, smile and don’t know why. It’s very sweet.”

Though he relishes his bad-boy character, Ward’s favorite “Christmas Story” scene - Ralphie’s soap-poisoning fantasy - did not involve him.

“When I was a kid, I would get punished by mom for screwing something up. I would sit in my bed, imagine I would get hit by a car, thinking, ‘They’d be sorry.’ That childhood revenge plot.”

Though not an instant classic, “A Christmas Story” has soared in popularity over the years, thanks in part to annual “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” showings on TNT and TBS. In 2012, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.

“You don’t get to decide when you become part of an American classic,” said Ward, also a director, producer, writer and entrepreneur. “I was a 13-year-old boy. To be included in that process is magic.”

Ward realized the film’s classic status around the 20th anniversary. While attending a Toys For Tots fundraiser at a movie theater, “I poked my head outside. There was a line going blocks. It really dawned on me, what a cultural phenomenon it had become.”

Sequels

While “A Christmas Story” spawned two sequels involving none of the original child actors, the upcoming “A Christmas Story Christmas” will feature Ward, Billingsley, Petrella, Schwartz and Robb.

Upon hearing of the new sequel - slated to stream later this year on HBO Max - Ward’s first reaction was “trepidation. They attempted this in the past and failed miserably. I was on the fence about it.”

However, after reading Nick Schenk’s script, Ward “liked where the characters were going, evolving, how it kept the heart of the original film, while it expanded the experience. It maintains a cohesion.”

Though unable to share details of the new Warner Bros/Legendary film, Ward - whose other TV and film roles include “Titus,” “Almost Famous” and “Trade” - believes fans will be “very happy.”

While Cardamone feels “A Christmas Story” does not need a sequel, he says, “Who am I kidding? I’ll be in line to see the sequel, as well.”