National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a movie you can revisit in perpetuity. Walk in at the beginning and you’ll struggle to step away as Clark Griswold sandwiches his wood-panelled station wagon underneath a logging truck. Keep watching and you’ll see the excavation of the Griswold family Christmas Tree. Then there’s the scene at the mall. Then the tree again. Then Cousin Eddie shows up. Then there’s dinner. Then there’s—

And it just keeps going. Scene after scene, always with the handbrake off. 

This movie never lingers after punchlines. There will be one great line delivery from Chevy Chase, and immediately we jump to the next scene. Something funny happens, then boom: we’re on to another sequence. There’s no dawdling. The film knows it’s funny and it doesn’t need to reinforce the comedy with post-punchline falling action. It’s a risk, that approach. Because if the comedy doesn’t land and the lines aren’t memorable, the film would fall flat. But in preparation for writing this, I asked 10 people their favorite line from this movie, and they all offered up a different one. 

But the film isn’t just slapstick beats and memorable one liners. Created in the aftermath of a Ronald Reagan presidency that furthered disparities between top earners and the rest of the country, Christmas Vacation offers an (admittedly comedic) look into an ’80s-era “plight” of the white, midwestern middle class. At a time where corporations began publicly admitting that their first responsibility was to their investors rather than their employees, Christmas Vacation gives us a hyperbolized illustration of what happens when you [SPOILER WARNING] receive a 12 month subscription to a Jelly of the Month club rather than a highly anticipated Christmas bonus.

In keeping with most of the films he writes, John Hughes bestows upon his characters a comfortable setting within capitalist confines. Hell, the reason Clark is so stressed is because he’s already put down a $7,500 deposit for a swimming pool. A swimming pool! The Griswolds are capital-C consumers. They’re always buying something. They’re buying a Christmas tree. They’re at the store shopping. They’re at the mall buying… who knows! They read through consumer magazines at night. They have custom hockey jerseys. 

Placed in contradiction to the Griswold family is Cousin Eddie. Eddie rolls up to the Christmas festivities in a mobile home — “the gentleman on wheels.” He’s lewd, dumps solid waste in the family’s sewer, wears a dickie. You know, he’s Cousin Eddie. But he’s also someone who just seems so unbothered by it all. He can’t afford Christmas presents for his children and yet he doesn’t appear consumed by it. Perhaps he’s out of touch (he’s certainly out of touch), but compared to Clark, it’s Eddie who’s the tranquil one.

When we first see Clark working his anonymous corporate job, his day-to-day consists of nothingness. He’s working on something called the “Crunch Enhancer,” a food product. “It’s a non-nutritive cereal varnish. It’s semi-permeable, it’s not osmotic. What it does is it coats and seals the flake, prevents the milk from penetrating it.”

Clark isn’t contributing much to the world around him. We soon meet his boss, Frank Shirley, and learn Griswold’s nothing more than another brick in the wall in the eyes of his employer. Clark, unmoved by work, has only the prospect of a Christmas bonus to motivate him in the office. And therefore, Christmas — for Clark — becomes about what that bonus translates into. He wants something big. He wants a big tree. He wants a lot of lights. He wants his table to be filled with grandparents and in-laws and children and cousins. He wants to be larger than life. He wants to be Santa Claus. Perhaps he’s chasing his own childhood nostalgia, but perhaps he’s lost sight of what made that nostalgia so nostalgic. 

Because, as Clark continues to climb for more and more and bigger and better, the pressure continues to mount. And Clark, “the last true family man,” spirals and spirals until—

Well, you’ll just have to watch. 

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
1989
dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik
97 min.

Screening Tuesday, 12/9, 7:00pm @ Landmark Kendall Square Cinema
Part of the series: Holiday Essentials