A Very Griswold Christmas
1989 saw the return of the doomed Griswold family to the big screen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The prior films in the series saw the Griswold clan heading out on an American road trip (National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983) and a European adventure (National Lampoon’s European Vacation, 1985). In this outing, the family stays home for a traditional family Christmas.
Chevy Chase returns as the optimistic Griswold patriarch, Clark, and Beverly D’Angelo reprises her role as his loyal wife, Ellen. Along for the ride are there children, Audrey and Rusty (Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki), the only primary cast members to be recast with each film.
Hoping to have a nice family Christmas, Clark and Ellen welcome their respective parents and other relatives into their home. They also get a surprise visit from Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid, in one of his most memorable roles) and his wife, Catherine (Miriam Flynn), both of which were featured in the first Vacation film.
The plot is fairly simple. Clark attempts to have a traditional family Christmas but in true Vacation style, everything falls to pieces. Clark gets a Christmas tree that’s too big for the family car and the family home. Clark goes overboard on Christmas lights. Clark has to bail out Eddie’s family and Eddie returns the favor when Clark’s boss, Mr. Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray), shorts him on his Christmas bonus. There’s even a lovely store clerk (Nicolette Scorsese) that Clark makes a fool of himself in front of while Christmas shopping.
Basically if you enjoy the Vacation films, you’ll enjoy Christmas Vacation. It’s the most profitable film of the series featuring the original cast and also considered to be the best by critics. In my opinion, the first two films in the series are better, but as far as Christmas films go, this is pretty solid Christmas classic.
The film is the first major studio feature for both Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki. Lewis would go on to have a major cinematic career starring in films such as Cape Fear (1991), The Other Sister (1999), and Natural Born Killers (1994). Galecki’s career would explode on television. After a few years of portraying Darlene’s boyfriend David, Galecki’s character eventually became a part of the main cast of Roseanne (1988-1997). He would then have roles, primarily supporting, on television and in films for the rest of the decade and then into the early 2000’s. He also starred on Broadway in numerous roles. In 2007, he was cast in The Big Bang Theory as Leonard Hofstadter. He would remain in the role until 2019 when the wildly popular series would end its run.
Another actor in a supporting role in this film who was about to hit it big was Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Margo Chester, one of Clark’s snobby neighbors who falls victim to many of his misadventures. Louis-Dreyfus was starring in Seinfeld (1989-1998) at the time of Christmas Vacation’s release, and the series was about to find its audience and become one of the most beloved comedies of all time.
Other cast members included John Randolph, Dianne Ladd, Doris Roberts, Sam McMurray, and William Hickey, all of whom have had successful careers on television and/or the big screen.
I enjoy watching Christmas Vacation at least once or twice during the holiday season. It’s not my favorite Christmas movie, but as far as some of the more modern Christmas films go, it’s one of the better ones. Check it out for a few laughs this Christmas season.
As always, thanks for reading my post. I’ll have another Christmas film review in a few days!
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