MasterChugs Theater: ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’

For many people, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the best Christmas-themed comedy ever filmed. Personally, I make it habit to watch this movie about ten million times between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Even after seeing the film so many times, Christmas Vacation remains as hilarious and entertaining as the previous holiday season. More than just a seasonal film, it’s one of those rare comedies that’s near perfect from beginning to end.

The movie follows the ongoing exploits of Clark Griswold and the Griswold family, but this particular rendition of the classic Vacation movies is arguably the best. As in the previous films, Clark’s goal is to create the perfect vacation for his family. Only this time, instead of hitting the road for Wally World or flying to Europe, the Griswolds stay at home in suburban Chicago.

When Clark vows to create “the most fun-filled old-fashioned family Christmas ever,” things naturally go awry. With the Griswold family and their in-laws living under one roof, the relatives constantly get on each others’ nerves. Clark sets out to decorate the house for Christmas, and his quest culminates in a 25,000 light extravaganza that covers every square inch of the house. In the process, he nearly breaks his neck several times and knocks out his neighbor’s window with a flying lance of roof gutter ice.

And then Cousin Eddie arrives uninvited and parks his RV in the Griswold driveway. The crescendo of disaster steadily increases as Christmas Day approaches with Clark’s agony compounded the absence of his annual Christmas bonus. Clark’s big Christmas surprise for the family is that he’s putting in a pool, but in order to start work as soon as the ground thawed out, he had to put down a hefty deposit which his check won’t cover without the Christmas bonus. After a Christmas Eve in which the turkey explodes, Aunt Bethany’s cat electrocutes itself, Uncle Lewis burns down the tree, and a squirrel gets loose in the house, a late night knock on the door provides Clark with hope. But when the bonus isn’t quite what Clark expected, Cousin Eddie surprises Clark with an unexpected last minute gift.

Hint: it’s not “the green stuff.”

Christmas Vacation has surprisingly little content that makes it seem “dated”. With some of the best one-liners in all of comedy, you’ll find yourself reciting its dialogue for many Christmases to come. But what makes Christmas Vacation such an enduring film is that everyone who watches it can relate to the events within. Almost everyone has a strange relative like Eddie or a pair of snotty elitist neighbors, and of course, who hasn’t had a squirrel ransack their house on Christmas Eve? Okay, well, maybe not everyone.

I can’t force you to adopt my tradition of watching this film, but that won’t stop me from trying. Sure, you can go out there this holiday season and watch “meaningful” stories that show you CG-infused train rides through a snowy terrain, or those tired old stories of Tiny Tim and his dad’s cranky employer. But wouldn’t it be better to see a Christmas tale unlike the others, one that delivers the true message of the modern holiday — the togetherness that idealist Clark must ultimately learn is the real meaning of the holidays? Wouldn’t you rather laugh along with family and friends as Cousin Eddie empties his chemical toilet into the storm sewer, only to see it explode later in the film’s touching final moments? Of course you would. That is why this film is so special, because it infinitely charming and undeniably fun.

That, and it’s funny. What’s so hard to understand?