From decorating the tree to writing letters to Santa, Christmastime is full of traditions. But is it really the holidays without watching your favorite Christmas movie?
One title guaranteed to be in heavy rotation is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the highest-grossing film in the Vacation franchise. John Hughes (Home Alone) wrote the screenplay based on his short story “Christmas ’59” published in National Lampoon magazine’s December 1980 issue, with Jeremiah S. Chechik (Benny & Joon) as director.
Chris Columbus (The Christmas Chronicles 2) was set to direct but clashed with Chevy Chase, leading to Columbus exiting the film. Hughes then tapped him to direct Home Alone. However, Chechik tells a different story, one that doesn’t include Columbus ever being officially attached to direct the film. Either way, both ended up with two box office hits and timeless classics, so it all worked out. This three-quel was Chechik’s feature film directorial debut after working as a fashion photographer and commercial director. He received praise from Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) for his beer commercials, which led to an unexpected call from Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park).
Premiering on December 1, 1989, Christmas Vacation was a new chapter for the Griswolds, an all-American family of four first introduced in 1983’s Vacation followed by European Vacation in 1985. Ironically, this is the only movie where they don’t actually leave their home unless we want to count an unnecessary trip to the mountains for a Christmas tree. That’s Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) for you; a goofy family man from the Midwest who’s always doing the most. This time around he just wants his family to have the perfect Christmas but sets expectations so high that something (or everything) is bound to go wrong. And it does — several times.
Clark drags his very patient wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), moody teen daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis), and young son Rusty (Johnny Galecki) on a long and dangerous road trip just to chop down the ideal tree. When they get it home, it’s entirely too big for their suburban house. The Griswolds’ yuppie neighbors, Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) witness all of Clark’s shenanigans and unfortunately pay the price for his mistakes.
The arrival of Clark’s parents, Clark Sr. (John Randolph) and Nora Griswold (Diane Ladd), and Ellen’s parents, Arthur (E. G. Marshall) and Frances Smith (Doris Roberts), means the kids have to give up their rooms. This is just one of many, many relatable gripes of the holidays, especially when you’re too young to have any say in the matter.
But things don’t go off the rails until they get a surprise visit from Ellen’s Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), his wife Catherine (Miriam Flynn), their children Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), and their messy Rottweiler, aptly-named Snots. I feel like this wild brood inspired the visiting family in Krampus since they’re alike, though the Johnsons aren’t (knowingly) antagonistic.
Cousin Eddie is the redneck stereotype we often see on screen. He’s a slob, oblivious to his destructive habits like saying and doing socially unacceptable things. Even though there are countless funny moments throughout the whole movie, my favorites almost always involve Eddie.
Who can forget him in his bathrobe, beer in hand, emptying his RV’s septic tank into the sewer, or his super serious “You serious, Clark?” in response to hearing Santa Claus is on his way? Although, one of the scenes that never fails to make me laugh is when he’s talking to Clark in the living room wearing a dark dickie under a white shirt and casually knocking off pieces of a decorative windmill.
Because this is the holidays and having a packed house of feuding family members is almost guaranteed, there’s also the arrival of Clark’s Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) and Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel, in her last film credit). While Lewis is a crotchety toupee-wearing cigar lover, Bethany is an adorably senile woman who mistakenly recites the “Pledge of Allegiance” at dinner instead of saying grace.
And amid all of the family chaos (a ruined turkey, gift-wrapped cat, tree fire), Clark’s still counting on his Christmas bonus, which he needs in order to pay for an inground swimming pool. Of course, his Scrooge of a boss Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray) decides a Jelly of the Month club membership is a great replacement for actual money. Cousin Eddie saves the day by kidnapping Shirley and essentially shaming him into reinstating the usual bonus.
While the first three Vacation movies are the most talked about, Christmas Vacation wasn’t the last of the series. In 1997, some of the cast (Chase, D’Angelo, Quaid, and Flynn) returned for Vegas Vacation, an underrated movie and personal favorite. Quaid and Flynn also reprised their roles in the 2003 spin-off Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure, which follows their disastrous clan on their own misadventure. Chase and D’Angelo continue to appear as Clark and Ellen Griswold in everything from Super Bowl commercials, ads for Old Spice, and the 2015 remake Vacation starring Ed Helms as a grown-up Rusty.
From the wacky mishaps to oddly endearing characters, Christmas Vacation remains an uproarious, feel-good, oft-quoted holiday classic. Over 35 years, the film has become an annual must-watch for a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is available to stream on Max (and likely playing on multiple TV channels).
