National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 Christmas comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, and is considered a holiday classic. The title song of the same name was written for the movie by the husband-wife song writing team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, performed by Mavis Staples.

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Plot

{{#ifexist:Category:Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention from May 2009 Chicago suburbanite Clark Wilhelm Griswold Jr. (Chevy Chase) really has the Christmas spirit this year. The film opens with Clark taking his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) on the search for a perfect Christmas tree. After aggravating nearby motorists by giving them The Finger, getting stuck under a large truck, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark and his family finally find the perfect tree. The tree has to be dug out of the ground because Clark forgot to bring a saw.

Upon arriving home, the Griswolds' snobby next door neighbors, Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) and his wife Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) ask Clark where he plans to put a tree that large. Clark responds by saying "bend over and I'll show you!". Todd, thinking Clark is talking to him, tells him he has a lot of nerve saying that to him. Clark then says, "I wasn't talking to you," as he is looking at Margo. Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting the tree up.

Clark has invited Ellen's parents Arthur Smith (E. G. Marshall) and Frances Smith (Doris Roberts), his own parents Clark Wilhelm Griswold Sr (John Randolph) and Nora Griswold (Diane Ladd), and his Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) to spend Christmas at the Griswold house in Chicago.

While shopping for gifts at the Marshall Field's at Water Tower Place in Chicago, Clark meets an attractive saleswoman named Mary (Nicolette Scorsese). He makes a series of sexually suggestive slips to her on their encounter. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem to mind and is quite flattered.

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 check that his bank account can't cover yet. He's counting on his Christmas bonus from work to cover it.

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 Clark to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. During the struggle to put the lights on, Clark falls off the ladder and hangs from a gutter, which causes a gutter-shaped bar of ice to break through the Chesters' window and smash their stereo while they're not home. They're puzzled at first by the discovery because the evidence (the ice chunk) has melted by the time they return, but knowing their neighbors, it doesn't take them long to figure out what happened. Clark covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights—250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights. Clark becomes very frustrated after many failed attempts to get the lights working. Ellen discovers that the outlet in which the lights were plugged wasn't powered and so switches it on in a brilliant flash of light, at the same time blinding the Chesters as they're about to make love, causing them to single-handedly wreck their own house as they're trying to shield themselves from the brightness.

After the lights are up and running, Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her sloppy husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), and two of their kids, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), show up to stay with the Griswolds for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway. The next day, Eddie empties the R.V. toilet into the storm sewer saying "Merry Christmas! Shitter's full!" 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 years of unemployment. Later, Clark sexually fantasizes about Mary stripping and skinny-dipping in the pool he hopes to buy.

On Christmas Eve, Clark's Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany arrive for dinner. Numerous disasters occur that evening: The turkey is cooked for far too long and dries out, Bethany's cat is seriously fried when it chews on a strand of Christmas lights, and Lewis (while lighting a cigar) accidentally burns the Christmas tree down, forcing Clark to quickly search for a replacement, this means having to have a mental breakdown by grabbing his chain saw and cutting down a tree in his yard that ends up falling through Todd and Margo's window while they were discusing getting a tree. Clark takes one from his yard and sets it up, and while doing so, the treetop breaks through the Chesters' window.

Unknown to Clark, the tree is home to a manic squirrel, which leaps out of the tree and "terrorizes" the family. Having had enough of her neighbors' shenanigans, Margo orders Todd to go next door and slug Clark for the damages he caused them. The passive Todd is unwilling to do so, and Margo ventures next door to take on the job herself. As she's about to rap on the door, Clark opens it while the squirrel continues its rampage, finally resulting in its leap onto Margo's chest, taking her totally by surprise. Clark closes the door on the screaming woman.

A delivery man from the company arrives at the house that evening, with Clark expecting it to be the long-awaited bonus. Unfortunately, Clark's boss, Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle Murray), has sent Clark an enrollment in the "Jelly of the Month" club. This final insult causes Clark to go over the edge, going through several outbursts out of profanity, and severe aggravation. The family attempts to leave due to the events of the evening, but Clark says they're not leaving.

This situation gives Eddie the idea for the perfect Christmas gift for Clark after Clark offers to help Eddie treat Rocky and Ruby Sue to a good Christmas—Eddie goes to Frank's house and brings Frank to the Griswold house, and then Eddie and the Griswolds help Frank see the error of his ways about the Christmas bonuses. Frank changes his mind, deciding that he will give out Christmas bonuses this year, adding 20% to what the bonuses were last year—more than enough to cover the check Clark wrote to pay for the pool. A SWAT team, called by Frank's wife Helen (Natalia Nogulich), raid the home (after breaking down the door at the Chester home first by mistake and further aggravating Margo), but Frank explains that it's all a misunderstanding while Helen is disgusted to hear about Frank's original intent to cut the Christmas bonuses.

Outside, 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 family Christmas, saying simply: "I did it" while Snots the dog happily looks up at him.

Cast

• Chevy Chase as Clark Wilhelm "Sparky" Griswold, Jr.
• Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Smith Griswold
• Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold
• Johnny Galecki as Rusty "Russ" Griswold
• John Randolph as Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Sr.
• Diane Ladd as Nora Griswold
• E.G. Marshall as Arthur "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

Box office performance

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 video rental profits. ^{[1] [2]}

Sequels

This is the only sequel in the Vacation series to have spawned its own direct sequel: a direct to video 2003 release entitled National Lampoon's 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.). This straight to video release, however has not been very successful. 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)

Television broadcast

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 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 film is often criticized for "pushing too hard at the PG-13 limit".

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 and then flips them off. This is shown in Canada, but not in the USA.

The French version of the film is also broadcasted every year by TVA, usually in mid-December.

TNT broke with tradition starting in September 2007 by airing Christmas Vacation six 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.

In Australia, The Nine Network has a tradition where it is aired every Christmas night.

In the UK, Christmas Vacation has aired numerous years, usually around the festive season; Five currently holds the UK rights to the Vacation movie series.

References

1. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=christmasvacation.htm ''Box Office Mojo'' box o
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/business IMDb box office and rental information