National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film and the third installment in "National Lampoon" magazine's "Vacation" film series. "Christmas Vacation" was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Miriam Flynn, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki, and special appearances by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicholas Guest, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Natalia Nogulich. Based on Hughes' short story "Christmas  '59" that was published in "National Lampoon", it tells the story of the Griswold family spending Christmas vacation at home with their relatives and the ensuing mayhem. Plot. Chicago-area resident Clark Griswold plans to have a great Christmas with his entire family. He drives his wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty out to the country to find a tree. After walking through the snow for hours, Clark picks out the largest tree he can find. Realizing too late that they did not bring any tools to cut the tree down, they are forced to uproot it instead, before  driving home with the tree strapped to the roof of their car. Soon after, both Clark's and Ellen's parents arrive for Christmas, but their bickering quickly begins to annoy the family. Clark, however, maintains a positive attitude, determined to have a "fun old-fashioned family Christmas". He covers the house's entire exterior with 25,000 twinkle lights, which fail to work at first, as he has accidentally wired them through his garage's light switch. When they finally come on, they temporarily cause a citywide power shortage and create chaos for Clark's yuppie neighbors, Todd and Margo . While standing on the front lawn admiring the lights, Clark is shocked to see Ellen's country-based cousin Cathrine and her husband Eddie, as they arrive unannounced with their children, Rocky and Ruby Sue, and their Rottweiler Snots. Eddie later admits that they are living in the RV they arrived in as he is broke and has been forced to sell his home and acreage. In addition, the older half of his children are too busy to join Eddie in the visit. Clark offers to buy gifts for Eddie's kids so they can still enjoy Christmas. Soon afterward , Clark's senile Aunt Bethany and grumpy Uncle Lewis arrive as well. Clark begins to wonder why his boss, Frank Shirley, has not given him his yearly bonus, which he desperately needs to replace an advance payment he has made to install a swimming pool for the coming summer. After a disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, along with Bethany's cat getting electrocuted and Uncle Lewis accidentally burning down the Christmas tree while lighting his cigar, he finally receives an envelope from a company messenger, who had failed to deliver it the day before. Instead of the presumed bonus, the envelope  contains a free year's membership for the "Jelly of the Month Club". This prompts Clark to snap and go into a tirade about Frank and, out of anger, request that he be delivered to the house, wrapped in a bow, so Clark can insult him to his face. Taking Clark's request literally, Eddie drives to Frank's mansion, and kidnaps him. Frank admits to having canceled the Christmas bonuses, and Clark chastises him for doing so. Meanwhile, Frank's wife, Helen, calls the police, and a SWAT team storms the Griswold house and holds everyone at gunpoint. Frank  decides not to press charges and explains the situation to his wife and the SWAT leader, both of whom scold him for his decision to scrap the bonuses. Frank ultimately decides to reinstate the bonuses (with Clark getting a bonus equal to last year's amount, plus 20% as compensation). The family heads outside when Rocky and Ruby Sue believe they see Santa Claus in the distance. Clark tells them it is actually the Christmas Star and that he finally realizes what the holiday means to him. Uncle Lewis says the light is coming from the sewage treatment plant, reminding  Clark that Eddie had been dumping his RV sewage into the nearby storm drain. Before Clark can stop him, Uncle Lewis tosses a match used to light his cigar into the drain, triggering an explosion. The explosion sends a Santa's sleigh decoration flying into the sky. Aunt Bethany starts singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and everyone joins in as the flaming decoration flies into the distance. The entire family, Frank and Helen, and the SWAT team members then celebrate inside the house, while Clark and Ellen happily share a Christmas kiss, and Clark stands outside satisfied that he provided  a great Christmas for his family. As the credits roll, he manages to give Snots the petting he wanted. Production. Development and writing. "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" originated from a short story by writer John Hughes called "Christmas '59," which was published in the December 1980 issue of "National Lampoon" magazine. "The studio came to me and begged for another one, and I only agreed because I had a good story to base it on," said Hughes. "But those movies have become little more than Chevy Chase vehicles." Director Chris Columbus initially was to direct the film, but due  to a personality clash between him and Chase, Columbus left the film and was replaced by Chechik. Hughes eventually gave Columbus the script to "Home Alone". Filming. Principal photography began on March 27, 1989, in Summit County, Colorado, with footage shot in Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Frisco. From there the production moved to Warner Bros. Ranch Facilities in Burbank, California, where the set of the Griswold family's house and street is located. Music. The musical score for "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" was composed by Angelo Badalamenti. It is the only installment of the "Vacation" film series not to include  Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road". In its place is a song entitled "Christmas Vacation" that was written for the movie by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and performed by Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers fame. The song was covered in 2007 by "High School Musical" star Monique Coleman for the 2007 Christmas album "Disney Channel Holiday". Popular Christmas songs featured in the film include Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters Hawaiian-themed "Mele Kalikimaka", and, during the climax of the film, Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus". For the latter song, Autry 's re-recorded 1957 Challenge Records version is used. Despite several popular songs being present in the film, no official soundtrack album was released. In 1999, a bootleg copy containing music featured in the film along with select cuts of dialogue dubbed as the "10th Anniversary Limited Edition" began to appear on Internet auction sites with the claim that Warner Bros. and RedDotNet had pressed 20,000 CDs for Six Flags Magic Mountain employees to sell to customers entering the park. However, while the discs were individually numbered out of 20,000, only 7,000 were sold as a part of an on  demand production printed at gift shop kiosks within the park. Forums on movie music sites such as SoundtrackCollector later declared the disc to be a bootleg due to its inaccuracies. For instance, the cut "Christmas Vacation Medley" (claiming to be the work of composer Angelo Badalamenti) is really a track called "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" from "" by composer John Williams and does not actually contain any of Badalamenti's "Christmas Vacation" score. Release. Home media. The film has been released on home media several different times: VHS and Laserdisc in early 1990, a bare bones DVD in 1997, and a  Special Edition DVD in 2003. HD DVD as well as Blu-ray editions were released in 2006. In 2009, a second Blu-ray of the film was released as an "Ultimate Collector's Edition". A steelbook Blu-ray was released in 2015. Reception. Box office. The movie debuted at No. 2 at the box-office while grossing $11,750,203 during the opening weekend, behind "Back to the Future Part II". The movie eventually topped the box-office charts in its third week of release and remained #1 the following weekend. It went on to gross a total of $71,319,546  in the United States while showing in movie theaters. It was the highest-grossing film in the series, until the release of "Vacation" in 2015. Critical response. At the time of the film's release, the film received mixed to positive reviews; however, over time, many have cited it as a Christmas classic. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that of film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of . The site's consensus reads, "While "Christmas Vacation" may not be the most disciplined comedy, it's got enough laughs and good cheer to make for  a solid seasonal treat." Another review aggregation website, Metacritic, assigned the film a rating of 49 out of 100 based on 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Entertainment magazine "Variety" responded positively to the film stating, "Solid family fare with plenty of yucks, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" is Chevy Chase and brood doing what they do best. Despite the title, which links it to previous pics in the rambling Vacation series, this third entry is firmly rooted at the Griswold family homestead, where Clark Griswold (Chase) is engaged in a typical over-reaching attempt to give his family  a perfect, old-fashioned Christmas." Rita Kempley of "The Washington Post" gave the film a positive review explaining that "it will prove pater-familiar to fans of the 1983 original and the "European Vacation" sequel. Only it's a bit more whimsical." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film two out of four stars, saying, "The movie is curious in how close it comes to delivering on its material: Sequence after sequence seems to contain all the necessary material, to be well on the way toward a payoff, and then it somehow doesn't work." Sequels. The  fourth film in the series, "Vegas Vacation", would follow in 1997, without the involvement of either Hughes or National Lampoon. Spin-off. In 2003, NBC aired a spin-off called "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2" which featured Cousin Eddie's family on a Christmas vacation in the South Pacific. Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, and Dana Barron reprise their roles from the previous "Vacation" films alongside series newcomers Jake Thomas, Edward Asner, Sung Hi Lee, and Fred Willard. In popular culture. In 2012, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Juliette Lewis reunited for "Christmas Vacation"-themed ads for Old Navy. The series  of ads also featured the other actors who portrayed past versions of Russ and Audrey. In 2020, Chase and D'Angelo reprised their roles as Clark and Ellen in a Ford commercial for the Ford Mustang Mach-E spoofing the house lighting scene.