COLUMBUS – It may be summer outside but it’s Christmas inside the Dairy Products Building at the Ohio State Fair where the iconic holiday movie “A Christmas Story” has been immortalized in butter.
This year’s Ohio State Fair butter display, presented by the American Dairy Association Mideast, celebrates 35 years of the classic film, which was filmed in Cleveland in 1983.
Inside the cooler, sculptors have recreated some of the movie’s iconic scenes in butter, including Ralphie in his bunny suit, a Christmas tree decorated with real twinkling lights, Randy in his snowsuit (still unable to lower his arms) and, of course, the iconic leg lamp (right).
Someone must have triple-dog-dared the butter calf because her tongue is stuck to a pole right alongside Flick (top) as the butter cow looks on.
The butter display attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually at the Ohio State Fair, association officials said.
A team of five Ohio-based technical sculptors, including lead sculptors Paul Brooke and Alex Balz of Cincinnati; Erin Swearingen of Columbus; Tammy Buerk of West Chester; and Matt Davidson, a dairy farmer from Sidney, spent about 400 hours in a 46-degree cooler to create the buttery works of art from 2,200 pounds of butter.
The butter sculptures are on display in the Dairy Products Building at the Ohio State Fair from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. through August 5.
Fairgoers can also enjoy treats like ice cream, milkshakes and cheese sandwiches.