Head on down to Playhouse Smithville for “A Christmas Story,” running for five performances only in historic downtown Smithville, Texas. The holiday film A Christmas Story, written by Jean Shepherd and first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. Performances at Playhouse Smithville are directed by john daniels, jr.