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National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeremiah Chechik
Produced by	John Hughes Matty Simmons
Written by	John Hughes
Starring	Chevy Chase Beverly D'Angelo Juliette Lewis Johnny Galecki John Randolph Diane Ladd
Music by	Angelo Badalamenti
Cinematography	Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by	Jerry Greenberg
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 1, 1989
Running time	97 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	$27 million
Gross revenue	$71.32 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik and produced by Warner Bros. It is the third installment in the National Lampoon Vacation series of movies.

It stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Griswold, Johnny Galecki as Rusty Griswold and a young Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn reprise their roles as, respectively, "Cousin Eddie" and "Cousin Catherine," from the first National Lampoon's Vacation film. Other supporting roles are played by Brian Doyle-Murray (who also appeared in the original Vacation film, although in a different and smaller role), E. G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, William Hickey, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen and Sam McMurray. This was also Mae Questel's last role before her death.

As head of his family, Clark W. Griswold attempts to follow American family Christmas traditions with elaborate Christmas lights and decorations on the exterior of the family home. He then attempts a Grand Illumination outside the house.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Box office performance 4 Sequels 5 Cultural References 6 Television broadcast 7 References 8 External links

The movie begins with Clark taking his family on the search for a perfect Christmas tree. After aggravating nearby motorists, getting stuck under a big rig, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark finally finds said tree. (He digs the tree out himself because he forgot the saw.) Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting it up, as it barely fits in the yard, let alone the living room.

While shopping for gifts at a downtown Chicago department store, Clark meets a saleswoman named Mary. He makes a series of Freudian slips to her on their first encounter, and later fantasizes about her skinny-dipping in his future pool (interrupted by his cousin's daughter)

Clark has been working on a project at his firm which he expects will bring in a good Christmas bonus. Clark plans to use the bonus to put in a swimming pool, on which he has already laid down a $7,500 deposit.

As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark's extended family begin arriving to stay with him. Clark and Ellen's parents are the first to arrive. This drives him to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. He covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights (according to Clark himself, a grand total of 25,000 Christmas lights). Clark becomes very frustrated after many attempts to get the lights working. Unknown to him, the electricity wasn't on to begin with. When Ellen heads to the back store room to get something, she clicks a light switch, lighting the house (and causing the power plant to switch to nuclear generators for backup power), and blinding their yuppie neighbors. After the lights are up and running, Ellen's cousin-in-law and cousin, Eddie and Catherine, along with their children show up to stay with him for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway the whole time. Stifling his disappointment at their surprise arrival proves difficult for Clark. However, Clark and Ellen are concerned about Eddie's children, as they won't have many, if any gifts, for Christmas, due to Eddie's seven year unemployment.

On Christmas Eve, the family's eldest members, Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany, arrive for dinner. Numerous disasters occur that evening: The turkey is cooked for far too long and dries out, the aunt's cat is electrocuted when it chews on a strand of Christmas lights, Lewis burns the tree down, forcing Clark to quickly search for a replacement. He takes one from his yard and sets it up, and a manic squirrel leaps out and "terrorizes" the family. A delivery from the company arrives at the house that evening, everyone expecting it to be the long-awaited bonus. Unfortunately, Clark's boss cut out bonuses without informing his employees. As a substitute, Clark is enrolled in the "Jelly of the Month" club.

Clark has now reached his boiling point, going through several outbursts out of severe frustration. The family attempts to leave due to the events of the evening. Eddie then kidnaps Clark's boss, and the boss finally sees reason about the Christmas bonuses. The police, called by the boss' wife, raid the home, but the boss explains that it is all a misunderstanding.

Uncle Lewis' cigar ignites the gas from the sewage Eddie had earlier dumped down the street drain while emptying the holding tank on his RV, blasting a Santa ornament into the sky. Everyone watches the strange but touching sight, as Clark realizes his dream of the perfect, albeit weird, family Christmas, saying simply: "I did it."

• Chevy Chase as Clark Wilhelm "Sparky" Griswold, Jr.
• Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Smith Griswold
• Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold
• Johnny Galecki as Russell "Rusty" Griswold
• John Randolph as Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Sr.
• Diane Ladd as Nora Griswold
• E.G. Marshall as Art Smith
• Doris Roberts as Frances Smith
• Randy Quaid as Cousin Edward "Eddie" Johnson
• Miriam Flynn as Cousin Catherine Johnson
• Cody Burger as Cousin Rocky Johnson
• Ellen Hamilton Latzen as Cousin Ruby Sue Johnson
• William Hickey as Uncle Lewis
• Mae Questel as Aunt Bethany
• Sam McMurray as Bill
• Nicholas Guest as Todd Chester
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Margo Chester
• Brian Doyle-Murray as Mr. Frank Shirley

The movie debuted at #1 at the box-office while grossing $11,750,203 during the opening weekend. It went on to gross a total of $71,319,546 in the United States while showing in movie theaters. In addition to its box-office performance, the movie has made $34,800,000 in rental profits.^{[1] [2]}

This is the only sequel in the Vacation series to have spawned its own sequel: a direct to video 2003 release entitled Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn returned as Eddie and Catherine, along with Dana Barron again appearing as Audrey, which she played in Vacation, and Eric Idle, who played "The Bike Rider" in European Vacation reprises the role, only this time being credited as "British Man on Plane". (In both films, Idle is accidentally beaten to a bloody pulp by the main characters.)

Christmas Vacation is preceded in the Vacation series by:

• National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
• National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)

Christmas Vacation is followed in the series by:

• Vegas Vacation (1997)
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003)

• The scene where Clark cuts off the wobbly newel post is a direct reference to It's A Wonderful Life where the Bailey House always had problems with the newel post.

The broadcast television rights to Christmas Vacation are held by NBC, which currently airs a censored version of the movie every December, usually on a Sunday night. In 2006, NBC did not air the movie, which instead appeared on the TBS, which listed it six times on its schedule between Sunday, Dec. 17 and Sunday. Dec. 24, 2006. The TBS broadcast included some of the risque language of the theatrical release, including the series of double entendre remarks a flustered Clark utters when he encounters sexy department store saleswoman Mary (Nicolette Scorsese) at the negligee counter.

The CBC however, has no problem broadcasting the movie with some scenes that its American counterpart censors. For example, in the beginning of the film, Clark is antagonized by a couple of men in a truck. He flips them off. This is shown in Canada, but not in the USA.

TNT broke with tradition starting in September of 2007 by airing Christmas Vacation 6 times during the weekend of the 15th and 16th mixed between the original Vacation and Vegas Vacation. It is not known if NBC has made an agreement with TNT's regular programming and rights for the film, but the networks share coverage for sporting events such as the PGA and NASCAR races.

On December 19, 2007, the film made its debut on Turner Classic Movies.

• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at the Internet Movie Database
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at All Movie Guide

v • d • e National Lampoon's Vacation series
Films	National Lampoon's Vacation • National Lampoon's European Vacation • National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation • Vegas Vacation • National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure
Cast	Chevy Chase • Beverly D'Angelo • Randy Quaid • Miriam Flynn
Crew	Harold Ramis • John Hughes • Amy Heckerling • Jeremiah S. Chechik • Matty Simmons
Characters	Clark Griswold

v • d • e John Hughes
As Director	Sixteen Candles (1984)  · The Breakfast Club (1985)  · Weird Science (1985)  · Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)  · Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)  · She's Having a Baby (1988)  · Uncle Buck (1989)  · Curly Sue (1991)
As Writer	National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)  · Mr. Mom (1983)  · National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)  · Nate and Hayes (1983)  · Sixteen Candles (1984)  · The Breakfast Club (1985)  · Weird Science (1985)  · Pretty in Pink (1986)  · Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)  · Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)  · Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)  · She's Having a Baby (1988)  · The Great Outdoors (1988)  · Uncle Buck (1989)  · Christmas Vacation (1989)  · Home Alone (1990)  · Career Opportunituies (1991)  · Dutch (1991)  · Curly Sue (1991)  · Beethoven (1992)  · Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)  · Dennis the Menace (1993)  · Baby's Day Out (1994)  · Miracle on 34th Street (1994)  · 101 Dalmatians (1996)  · Flubber (1997)  · Home Alone 3 (1997)  · Reach the Rock (1998)  · Just Visiting (2001)  · Maid in Manhattan (2002)