Christmas at the Griswolds ranks at No. 17 in the Disc Dish countdown of the top 25 Christmas movies.
Released in 1989, comedy National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation stars Chevy Chase (TV’s Community), Beverly D’Angelo (TV’s Entourage), Juliette Lewis (Conviction) and Johnny Galecki (TV’s The Big Bang Theory) as the Griswald family, whose vacations always turn into disasters (National Lampoon’s Vacation in 1983 and European Vacation in 1985). For their Christmas vacation, the Griswalds are staying home, but their obnoxious relatives are coming to stay.
Of course, everything goes wrong, and the low points of the Griswalds’ Christmas are high points for us. Among them: Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), wearing a revealing bathrobe, sets up his RV in their front yard; Clark gets stuck in the attic and dons pink gloves and a fur coat to stay warm; the Christmas turkey deflates; and Aunt Bethany’s (Mae Questel) cat is electrocuted by the Christmas tree lights; to name just a few.
And then there are the fun quotes:
When D’Angelo asks Chase what he’s looking at out the window, he replies, “Oh, the silent majesty of a winter’s morn … the clean, cool chill of the holiday air and an asshole in his bathrobe emptying a chemical toilet into my sewer.”
And from Quaid: “Every time Catherine revved up the microwave, I’d piss my pants and forget who I was for about half an hour or so.”
D’Angelo describes the movie nicely with her quote, “Welcome to our home … what’s left of it.”
Christmas Vacation grossed $71 million when it was released in theaters back in 1989. It’s available on DVD
Check out the rest of the Disc Dish Christmas Movie Advent Calendar.
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