At my house, it's just not Christmas until we watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. After two roadtrip movies, Christmas Vacation was refreshingly low-key, with the Griswold clan spending the holidays at home.
Here's why it's the greatest modern Christmas movie of all time.
1. Chevy Chase is on his game.
Chevy Chase has always been an actor with great comedic timing, but his choice in roles has been hit-and-miss. Here, Chase takes his manic family man goofball from National Lampoon's Vacation and morphs him into a pure-hearted soul who's genuinely in love with Christmas, despite his total lack of common sense.
We love Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation because he's a dreamer. He's every one of us who's ever tried to have a Martha Stewart Christmas but ended up with Barney Fife's.
2. John Hughes wrote it.
That's right, Mr. '80s Movie himself penned the script. Hughes is known for writing and/or directing iconic dramedy movies such as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. He also wrote the first two Vacation movies. And it's arguably one of his last truly great movies. Not long after this, he went on to write crap like Beethoven and Flubber.
Christmas Vacation happened near the apex of his talent.
3. It's not just funny. It's witty.
You won't find too many films from the 1980s that were known for their sparkling dialogue -- and are still just as funny today.
4. It's highly quotable.
"Good talk, Dad."
"If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now."
"Worse? How could things get any worse? Take a look around you, Ellen. We're at the threshold of Hell!"
"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?"
"Would it be indecent to ask the grandparents to stay at a hotel?"
5. Its supporting cast is brilliant.
It's got Doris Roberts pre-Everybody Loves Raymond (and she's basically auditioning for the same mother-in-law-from-Hell role). There's the always-reliable Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as the Griswolds' vapid, ultra-modern neighbor. It's got Johnny Galecki from Big Bang Theory as Russ Griswold, the tweener son who's already smarter than dad. Diane Ladd as the perfect grandmother. Randy Quaid playing a nutjob before he turned into one in real life. But it's William Hickey and Mae Questel, as Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany, who are the highlights of the movie.
6. It's got a hidden gem in the form of Juliette Lewis.
Lewis plays the stereotypical air-headed, attitude-filled teenager six years before Clueless made it a thing. And every time she opens her mouth, I laugh out loud. Her unimpressed-with-everyone-and-everything line delivery is absolutely hysterical.
7. It manages to be both inappropriate and wholesome at the same time.
It wouldn't be National Lampoon-affiliated if it didn't have a little raunch, but Christmas Vacation never loses its grip on its heart.
8. It set the standard for over-the-top Christmas lights.
Every neighborhood has that one house with the outdoor Christmas lights that are completely out of control. The one guy who starts working on the lights in September and uses a staple gun to hold every bulb in place.
You can thank this movie for giving that guy the idea; it's his own fault he learned nothing from it.
9. It's got cat humor. And dog. And squirrel.
Long before cat humor was all the rage (thanks for that, YouTube), Christmas Vacation mined acres of comedy out of feline travails, most notably (and hysterically) in the power outage scene. It's a shame Cousin Eddie's dog Snot didn't get to spend more time with Aunt Bethany's kitty. But the squirrel scene is classic.
10. It really does put you in the Christmas spirit.
Because the Griswolds face the same suburban Christmas trials that we do (albeit exaggerated for comedic effect), it warms our hearts when the end comes and Clark is triumphant.
