“Oh, Eddie... If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now.”

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. To kick off the Christmas season I wanted to rewatch my favorite Christmas film. While there is a few Christmas films I like better than this film I’ve always considered this to be my absolute favorite film of the holiday season. I have a ton of nostalgia for this film and this is also one of the films I’ve watched most. To be completely honest I don’t think I’ll ever get tried with watching this film (usually multiple times) every year. The plot is great it’s a joyful and incredibly entertaining story. The story perfectly captures the frantic yet remarkable essence of the Christmas season. There is a lot of plot holes and unnecessary plot points/sub-plots but it’s easy to look past all of the plots flaws when the story is this fun and enduring. The pacing is great since it’s such an extremely engaging there really isn’t a single slow or boring moment.

The acting is great Chevy Chase gives a great comedic performance. Chase is a comedic genius and he definitely gives the best performance of his career. Randy Quaid gives a great performance he plays a truly hilarious character that never fails to make me laugh. Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, and Mae Questel give good performances as well. The whole cast all give good comedic performances and all of their characters have their own moments to shine. The direction is good from Jeremiah S. Chechik and the script is great from John Hughes. John Hughes is the master of writing enduring and iconic comedies he really wasn’t able to make a single bad or even mediocre script. The cinematography is fine but nothing special or memorable. The editing is fast and fits with the tone of the film very well. The humor is fantastic this film is full of hilarious jokes, gags, and one liners. The timing and delivery from the actors goes perfectly with Hughes fantastic comedy. The ending is an immensely joyful ending that leaves you satisfied with what you just watched. Overall while it has a few big flaws National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is such a surpassing and hilarious Christmas essential that is hard to not completely be enthralled with.

(8 out of 10)

Each of the early Vacation movies nails a certain aspect of middle class family life, be it the cross-country road trip or a rare overseas adventure, and most of their laughs come from the lack of romanticism or glossy, nostalgic veneer. They dig straight into the dirty reality of awkward family dynamics, the unfulfilled promise of adulthood and the emptiness of the American dream; weighty subjects for a comedy, but the results are never all that serious. This time we're home for the holidays, with a busy household of nosy, noisy, overly dramatic relatives, in from out of town for a long, unpleasant visit. A Lampoon stay-cation, in other words, with a whole mess of awful family obligations.

John Hughes is in the writer's chair again, delivering his usual high-quality, relatable laughs with just a hint of sentiment. Clearly, he's lived this life and made these mistakes, and with the benefit of hindsight, he's all too happy to share and enjoy with the rest of us. Chevy Chase runs the show on-screen, his stress levels spiked as the maligned, tormented family man who's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He's picture perfect as the seemingly-jolly patriarch with a devilish glint in one eye, and his visibly mounting frustrations enhance almost every scene before the inevitable blow-up.

As a whole, Christmas Vacation still makes for a great off-color family tradition. A few of the jokes have grown dated (like most of neighboring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss's home décor), but the spirit remains rich and the broad, physical humor is timeless.