Biography

The producers of A Christmas Story (1983) wanted a teenager to play the grouchy elf in the department-store Santa scene. Johnson, then in her 30s, didn't know about the age criterion until she arrived at the crowded casting call. She got huffy, told them she had professional elf experience, and showed them photos from a past job as a singing elf at Higbee's (a now-defunct department store in Cleveland). She got a call-back, gave the producers more attitude, and got the part.

She is a drama teacher and aerobics instructor in northeast Ohio.

Her latest appearance with the restoration of the house where A Christmas Story (1983) was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio, credits her name in 2006 as: Patty Lafontaine not Patty Johnson.