Remembering My First Viewing of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation ” (December 1998)

I know that in the five months I’ve been running this blog, I’ve already posted about the year 1998 a couple of times (see Summer of ’98, and Halloween ’98). While this may seem excessive in such a small window of time, I can’t help it, and for a few reasons:

1) This year marks 25 years since 1998.
2) 1998 was the year where my taste in film really started to take shape.

So, let’s proceed with my final post of the year revolving around 1998, and seeing how ‘tis the season, I would like to talk about my very first viewing of a Christmas film that quickly became important to me, not to mention an annual tradition: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

My very first memories of the movie are seeing the box art at the video store when it was first released to home video in the early 90s, but I would have been around five years old and had no idea / interest as to what it was. I do remember being slightly uncomfortable by the sight of a man in a Santa Clause outfit being electrocuted, though.

Fast forward to 1998, I now knew who Chevy Chase was thanks to my big sister Natacha who had brought home a VHS tape in 1994 called “The Best of Saturday Night Live Hosted by Chevy Chase”. I was immediately drawn to his physical brand of comedy. I had also seen bits of the first two Vacation films on TV, so now I was aware of the Griswold Family and I knew what to expect with Christmas Vacation.

One day in December of 1998, I heard that French-Canadian network TVA was going to be airing the movie in French, so obviously, I wasn’t going to miss this. Here’s the best part: In French, the title of the movie is Le Sapin a des Boules, which translates literally to The Christmas Tree has Balls.

Picture taken from spasm.ca, advertising a 30^th anniversary showing of the film in French.

The TVA logo as I remember it. Their current logo is nowhere near as cool.

I can’t remember the exact date that the movie aired, but I do remember that it was on a Sunday, so if I had to guess I would say it aired on the night of December 13, 1998. I had bought a blank Sony videocassette from a store called Rossy, so I was ready to record my very first viewing of the film. Unfortunately, the tape turned out to be a dud and there were many tracking problems (lines going up and down the screen, affecting both the audio and the video), but thankfully it was only at the beginning of the film.

Before getting into my thoughts on the film itself, I want to talk about a few things I recall from this specific airing. I remember a bumper that would come on before every commercial break, advertising the movie that was to air the following Sunday, which was Les Quatre Filles du Docteur March (Little Women, 1994). I’ve never seen the movie to this day, but I can still remember that 5-second clip they played before every commercial break, and I can still hear the voices saying “Joyeux Noël, Beth! Joyeux Noël, Beth!”.

I also remember the brief clip that played before the movie would resume, which was the bit where Clark sees the perfect Christmas tree in the forest, from the beginning of the movie.

Speaking of the commercial breaks, and I didn’t realize this at the time since it was my first viewing of the film, but I later realized that the movie was slightly cut for time, and most cuts occurred where the commercials were placed. No big scenes were cut out, but mostly little transitional scenes, like the Griswolds individually hanging around the house while the doorbell repeatedly rings, before the door is opened and reveals both sets of grandparents…

Shots of both grandfathers asleep and snoring in front of the TV, while the grandmothers prepare a gingerbread house…

Shots of everyone adapting to their sleeping arrangements (with Grandpa Art rather enjoying Russ’ top bunk), while Clark is outside attempting to figure out the Christmas lights…

And for some reason, this establishing shot featuring a little decorative windmill was cut out. The rest of the conversation between Clark (Chevy Chase) and Eddie (Randy Quaid) was intact, but when Eddie clumsily breaks a similar windmill later in the scene, the joke was kind of ruined as it wasn’t clear what exactly he was breaking because we didn’t see it up close….

Now while these scenes may not be crucial to the plot, I’m always pleasantly surprised to see them when I watch the movie on DVD, as I had watched the TVA recording so many times before getting an official copy, so that version is ingrained in my brain. So much so, that when I watch the movie now, I can remember exact scenes that suffered from tracking problems on my old tape (mostly bits in the opening credits, and the road rage scene right at the beginning).

Now, the question on all of your minds: what did my 13-year-old self think of the movie upon this first viewing? Well, I think it’s obvious that I loved it right out of the gate!

I was invested from the animated opening credits, and then it just kept getting better as the Griswolds get trapped under a truck on their way to get a Christmas tree, then Clark forgetting a saw to cut down the perfect tree, which just fades to a shot of the tree on the roof of the car, with all of the roots intact… I was in stitches!

What I love most about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is that SO many events take place throughout the film. It only has a runtime of 97 minutes, but so many things happen during that hour and a half, and it’s all layed out so perfectly that the viewer doesn’t get bored, but rather wants MORE!

There are so many classic scenes to talk about when bringing up the film, whether it’s Clark fumbling his words in front of a beautiful lingerie sales woman, Clark trying to get the Christmas lights to work (more on that later), Clark trapped inside the attic while the rest of the family are out shopping, the squirrel that jumps out of the tree, and I could go on and on.

The actors all play so well off of each other, and I love the emphasis that the film puts on quality time with family. It stresses that, while you may not enjoy ALL of your relatives, the important thing is spending time together, and no matter what your differences are, good memories just might come out of it.

Randy Quaid shines as cousin Eddie who, along with wife Catherine (Miriam Flynn) overstays his welcome at the Griswold household. Every line that comes out of Quaid’s mouth is just pure comedic gold.

Speaking of memorable characters, I need to give credit to the Griswold kids: Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Russ (Johnny Galecki). Everyone knows by now that the running joke throughout the Vacation franchise is that the actors who play the kids change from movie to movie, but I gotta say: I think these are my favorite interpretations of the Griswold kids. Honorable mention to Anthony Michael Hall as Russ from the original Vacation, as he was also very good, but Lewis and Galecki just have a great chemistry on screen here, that they are totally believable as brother and sister. Beverly D’Angelo is perfect once again as patient wife (emphasis on “patient”) Ellen Griswold. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Her and Chase are so believable as a married couple, it’s crazy.

The supporting cast is fantastic, there’s no doubt about that, but we can’t dismiss the man running the show here: Chevy Chase. He’s in every memorable scene and every line he delivers is more hilarious than the line that came before it. Heck, he’s even hilarious when he’s not speaking, due to his physical performance.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas for me if I don’t see Clark Griswold struggle to turn on his Christmas lights. That satisfaction that comes over me when the lights finally work, blinding the snobby neighbors (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest), all of which is accompanied with the Hallelujah Chorus as Clark and the family cheer for joy… I just can’t describe it.

On the topic of Christmas lights, there’s an early scene where Clark and Russ are taking out all of the decorations (Clark: “Little knot here. You can work on that.“), and I can’t describe the level of nostalgia that comes over me from this little scene. I’m immediately brought back to when I was a boy helping my father put up the Christmas lights, every December. To say I miss those days would be a great understatement. In fact, if memory serves me right, I believe that my father and I had set up the Christmas lights the very same day I caught this airing.

One thing I’ve gathered while taking this trip down memory lane, is that in the 25 years that have passed since my first viewing of the film, I can now relate to the Clark Griswold character more than ever before. I am now married, with two children (two boys though, not a boy and a girl), and I can completely understand where Clark is coming from.

During the whole film, he is doing everything possible so that his family can have a good time on Christmas. He goes a little crazy in the process, yes, but bottom line is that he puts his family first. I get that, I really do. I’ve had times where I organize a little something (not necessarily Christmas-related, but just in general) hoping that the family has fun. It doesn’t always go according to plan, and your efforts aren’t always recognized, but what matters is that you put your family first, and you did it with the best of intentions. I didn’t realize it as a pre-teen watching the film for the first time, but I now think that a lot of fathers can relate to Clark, brought to life brilliantly by Chevy Chase.

In conclusion: There are maybe a handful of Christmas movies that I really enjoy and try to catch every year, but if there’s one that I absolutely can’t miss, it would be Christmas Vacation, and it all started with that first viewing in December of 1998. Since then, I’ve bought the movie on VHS, and again on DVD, and as luck would have it: the DVD comes with the option of the French language track. While I prefer the movie in its original English language, once in a while I just need to watch Le Sapin a des Boules, for nostalgic purposes.

If you haven’t watched this one in a while (or at all, in which case I say: Where have you been the last 34 years?), then I highly encourage you to give it another watch. Your funny bone will thank you.

Lastly, I will leave you with these photos I took of a pretty spot-on replica of Cousin Eddie’s van, which was getting ready to take part in the Christmas parade in Shediac, New Brunswick, on November 27^th 2021.

Happy Holidays, everyone!