National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Retro Review #28: Chevy chases the perfect family Christmas.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) — Chevy chases the perfect family Christmas.
+ Feature film, 1h 37m
A+v
Family Suitability
+ ❌1️⃣ Light adults-only content. | PG-13
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ⚠️0️⃣ Tolerable (Not in alignment with Judeo-Christian values, but focuses more on entertaining, not on advocating its viewpoint or pushing an agenda.)
+ Based on literature (short story) “Christmas ’59” ⭐ by John Hughes ⭐
+ 3️⃣/5 films in Vacation series ⏮️ ⭐
+ 1️⃣/2 movies in Christmas Vacation series ⭐
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Grade: A+v (20.0) / HOF: 90
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A- 📽️A+ 🎼A
DW 🕶️8.6 | 🌚8 🌝10
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
The third film in the Vacation series, originating from the titular magazine, is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase stars, returning as father Clark Griswold, along with Beverly D’Angelo returning as his wife, Ellen Griswold. This entry is widely considered to be the best in the series.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this, and I had completely forgotten the outstanding animated Dark Whimsy opening credits sequence!
Like our last review, Scrooged, the opening was the best scene in the movie. Unlike Scrooged though, Christmas Vacation had lots and lots of laughs throughout the whole film.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is not as consistently funny as A Christmas Story, but it isn’t too far behind. It’s also a close second to A Christmas Story in delivering nostalgic family holiday moments you can relate to—especially if you had some eccentric relatives who dropped in to bring their own special flavor of Christmas cheer.
Also like Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was rated PG-13, and includes a lot of adult language and sexual situations. It doesn’t quite cross the nudity line that Scrooged did, but comes close.
So after reading that previous review, you’d be forgiven for thinking all that adult stuff ruined all the Whimsy in Christmas Vacation for me, right?
Well here’s the thing. Yes, it reduced the Whimsy. But Christmas Vacation is filled with, like, ten times the Whimsy as Scrooged to begin with. The slapstick comedy Chase excels at is inherently whimsical, as are Christmas lights and daydream sequences. So sure, in my opinion, the film is not appropriate for kids or teens. But even with reduced Whimsy, it’s still a tour-de-force of, shall we say Adult Dark Whimsy.
Hmm... I don’t like that term. Too much of an oxymoron. Instead I’ll call it Dark Whimzy. You know. Makes it sound edgy and a little ghetto. (Actually it’s just because when I search for regular Dark Whimsy, I don’t want to get the adult version too. I’m practical that way.)
After Chevy Chase, the rest of the cast is acceptable, but I didn’t love any of the other performances. It’s worth noting that the actor who plays the Griswold brother, Clark’s son, grew up to become a successful sitcom star in his own right. With that info in hand, you just might recognize him. The actress who plays the sister, Clark’s daughter, has had a very successful film career herself.
The closing credits of the movie aren’t as great as the opening credits, but I still enjoyed them, because of the underlying song used in both sequences, “Christmas Vacation”. It’s performed by Mavis Staples. Please enjoy it with the super-fantastic Dark Whimsy opening title sequence of the film:
This song was developed for the film, and is good enough that I’ve heard it played a few times during the holiday season over the years. I think it’s good enough to be played even more often. Unfortunately there was never an official soundtrack album released for the movie, so I can’t add the Mavis Staples version to my Spotify Christmas playlists. The cover I found that sounded closest to the Staples rendition was performed by Kathryn Jones, but I didn’t look all that hard, and it wasn’t all that close, so if you have discovered a better one, let me know in the comments!
Onwards!
+ last viewed (~4) 2025-12-16, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ first viewed ~1990, sd3, 1.85vv, 2D
+ 🎈⛄🎄🎅🍌🥸
Family Suitability Detail
+ ❌1️⃣ Light adults-only content. | PG-13
+ 😡+2 😵💫+1 🤬-2^ 🫢-1 🫣-0
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ⚠️0️⃣ Tolerable (Not in alignment with Judeo-Christian values, but focuses more on entertaining, not on advocating its viewpoint or pushing an agenda.)
+ ✝️ +1 ➕(✝️)😇❤️🩸🩸🩸 ➖(😍)🤬👙🍺
+ ✡️ -1 ➕(✡️)💎🤍 ➖(😍)🤬🤬🫢🖤
+ 🗽 -1 ➕🗽⬜(🚓) ➖(😍)💻💻💲💲(☠️)
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