National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I find it rather reassuring that over the years, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has found it's place as a contemporary Christmas classic. It's certainly one that fits my sensibilities as a genuinely funny holiday comedy while eliminating the sort of saccharine sentimentality that makes me hate many so-called Christmas movies. It's one that I have enjoyed ever since it first came out in 1989 and one that's gotten funnier every year thereafter.

We catch up with the Griswold clan again having decided to have a fun, festive Christmas at home with the family. Clark (played by Chevy Chase) is determined that everything will be perfect while his doting wife, Ellen (played by Beverly D'Angelo) tries to help and/or be the voice of reason. The two kids, Rusty (played by Johnny Galecki) and Audrey (played by Juliette Lewis) are also dragged into helping. Rusty is made to help Clark with a Christmas lights display so over the top the local power plant has to switch on the auxiliary power and Audrey is recruited to help with the cooking. 

Then there are the Grandparents, a quartet of oddballs portrayed by John Randolph and Diane Ladd as Clark's Parents and E.G Marshall and Doris Roberts as Ellen's parents. And of course, there has to be an appearance by Ellen's cousin Eddie (played by Randy Quaid) and his wife Catherine (played by Miriam Flynn), the country bumpkin weirdos that they are. Eddie is a strange duck whose entire life is made up of stupefyingly bad decisions. 

Meanwhile, Clark is stewing, waiting for his Christmas bonus to show up. He is planning on putting in a pool in the backyard and needs the Christmas bonus to show up to cover the deposit he put down on it. With that, on top of all the other holiday insanity that his family brings with them, it's only a matter of time before Clark loses it in another of his patented freak outs. When it does happen, it may be the best one in the series. 

The thing that makes National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation so memorable is the fact that everyone can relate to it at least on some level. We've all had Christmas gatherings that maybe didn't go perfectly and while they may not have been on the level of this film (which is admittingly pretty over the top), there is still some level of familiarity that makes it all that much funnier. At the very least, it does for me.