National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

The Tinsel and the Terror

Around the second week of December, a very specific panic sets in. The fantasy version of the holidays—the one with glowing windows, perfect meals, and effortlessly charming family togetherness—starts collapsing under burnt food, dead batteries, impossible guests, and a to-do list that grows teeth. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation understands that feeling better than almost any holiday movie. I come back to it every year, usually right when my own seasonal competence starts cracking, and what always surprises me is how much low-grade dread is tucked inside the slapstick.



Jeremiah S. Chechik, making his feature debut after a career in commercials, takes John Hughes' script and turns suburban holiday pressure into something close to a live-action panic attack. Roger Ebert got to the heart of Clark Griswold in 1989 when he wrote, "What he wishes for his family, most desperately, is that they have a good time," and "All he is able to deliver is chaos and hair-raising misadventures." That's the whole movie, really. Clark isn't funny just because he's unlucky. He's funny because he needs this Christmas to work. His self-image is bound up in delivering the "fun, old-fashioned family Christmas," and every failure hits like a personal verdict.