The holidays wouldn’t be complete without watching this movie at least a dozen times in between Thanksgiving & Christmas! The reason why so many people know and love this movie is because Clark is so damn easy to relate to, in a manner of speaking, there’s a “Clark” in every one of us. We all have that urge to make the holidays perfect for our friends, husbands, girlfriends, children, in laws, or even for the sake of nostalgia. Every one of us strives to have that “good, old-fashioned family Christmas”. We want all of our relatives to get along just so we can celebrate the holidays together. That’s why Christmas Vacation has to be one of the greatest all-time best holiday movies to date!

No joke, it speaks volumes. For example, my family is so obsessed with it that they can pretty much quote the entire movie and a couple of years ago one of my aunts bought us all “Griswald Family Christmas” t-shirts. We wear them ALL of the time. We’ve looked up trivia on the movie and try to spot different things when we watch it every year. Oh yes! Our Thanksgiving night tradition is to watch Christmas Vacation to get us in the mood for Christmas and shopping and hanging out with family! It’s movies like this that define the term, “the most wonderful time of the year!”

Basically, if you didn’t get the gist already, Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) wants to have the perfect family Christmas in his Illinois home which his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) thinks is crazy. Which it is. This is where a lot of actors got their start too! Like the kid who ended up on Roseanne and then Big Bang Theory as well as Juliette Lewis who continued her film career but now is rocking out on tour promoting her music, which is awesome by the way! The cast really couldn’t be better!

The best part about this flick though is that you end up falling in love with each and every character these actors play. Eventually, you even find yourself liking cousin Eddie and Ellen’s parents gah! As annoying as Ellen’s mama & papa are ya have to adore their never-ending pessimism. The whole family is neurotic and hilarious, the best of all combinations! You’d be silly not to agree that at times, we all feel like our own families are the Griswald’s. And if you don’t have a family like that you wish you had one. They’re perfect and a complete mess just like our own families. Through this movie you learn to love the craziness of your own brood and for that . . .

I’ll give it an A+