Plot[]
With Christmas only a few weeks away, Chicago resident Clark Griswold decides it is time to get a Christmas tree. He gathers his wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty and drives out to the country to a tree farm. After walking through the snow for hours, Clark finds the largest tree he can. Realizing too late that they didn't bring any tools to cut the tree down, they are forced to uproot it instead, before driving home with the tree strapped to the roof of their car.
Soon after, both Clark's and Ellen's parents arrive to spend Christmas, but their bickering quickly begins to annoy the family. Clark, however, maintains a positive attitude, determined to have a "fun old-fashioned family Christmas." He covers the house's entire exterior with 25,000 twinkle lights, which fail to work at first, as he has accidentally wired them through his garage's light switch. When they finally come on, they temporarily cause a citywide power shortage and create chaos for Clark's snobby neighbors, Todd and Margo. While standing on the front lawn admiring the lights, Clark is shocked to see Ellen's cousin Catherine and her husband Eddie, as they arrive unannounced with their children, Rocky and Ruby Sue, and their Rottweiler dog, Snots. Eddie later admits that they are living in the RV they drove, as he is broke and has been forced to sell his home and acreage. Clark offers to buy gifts for Eddie's kids so they can still enjoy Christmas.
Clark begins to wonder why his boss Frank Shirley has not given him his yearly bonus, which he desperately needs to replace an advance payment he has made to install a swimming pool. After a disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, he finally receives an envelope from a company messenger, who had failed to deliver it the day before. Instead of the presumed bonus, the envelope contains a free year's membership for the Jelly of the Month Club. This prompts Clark to snap and go into a tirade about Frank, and out of anger, requests that he be delivered to the house, wrapped in a bow, so Clark can insult him to his face.
Eddie takes the request literally, drives to Frank's mansion, and kidnaps him. Clark confronts him about the cancellation of the employees' Christmas bonuses. Meanwhile, Frank's wife, Helen, calls the police, and a SWAT team storms the Griswold house and holds everyone at gunpoint. Frank decides not to press charges and explains the situation to his wife and the authorities, who scold him for his decision to scrap the bonuses, and he decides to reinstate them (with Clark getting a bonus of last year's amount plus 20%).
The family head outside, with Rocky and Ruby Sue believing they see Santa Claus in the distance. Clark tells them it's actually the Christmas Star and that he finally realizes what the holiday means to him. Uncle Lewis says the light is coming from the sewage treatment plant; reminding Clark that Eddie had been dumping his sewage into a storm drain. Before Clark can stop him, Uncle Lewis tosses his cigar, triggering an explosion. The explosion sends discarded Christmas decorations flying into the sky. Aunt Bethany starts singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the whole family and the SWAT team join in, gazing at Clark's Santa Claus and reindeer set flying into the distance. The entire family and the SWAT team members then celebrate inside the house, while Clark and Ellen happily share a Christmas kiss.
Explainable Errors[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Character error[]
- When the squirrel is in the house Clark says that Eddie usually eats them. Catherine says he stopped since they have high cholesterol. In fact, like most wild game, squirrel meat is very low in cholesterol. Eddie probably misread the article.
Continuity[]
- Just before the sledding scene, the hill in front of the family is very rough, with large mounds of snow, but when Clark goes down the hill, it has become very smooth. Clark probably spotted a smooth section.
- When Clark announces he was going to use the bonus check to install a swimming pool (and anything remaining would be used to fly them all out to dedicate it), the camera shot over Ellen's shoulder shows her expression of joy, but when the camera angle switches to show her more face on, her facial expression is more of shock and horror. Realisation of the likely disruption of what Clark is planning.
- The swat team leader tells Clark "I told you to freeze", and Clark asks "May we blink?". Behind the swat leader, the front door is standing wide open. After Clark asks "May we blink?", Mrs. Shirley and the police chief enter the house through the front door, but when they do, they open the door, the same door that was standing wide open seconds before. The door could have swung shut.
Factual errors[]
- Clark Griswold's Ford Taurus station wagon is shown to have exterior wood paneling, an option that was never available on this car. (However, it's possible the exterior appliques were added by the filmmakers as a nod to the "Wagon Queen Family Truckster" the Griswold family bought in Vacation.) Maybe Clark applied these himself.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]
- When Clark is locked in the attic, he sees a movie reel marked "Christmas 1959", but when he's later watching movies, it says "Christmas 1955". (IMDB) There might have been several year's worth of Xmas movies, and the first one we see him watching wasn't necessarily the first reel he looked at in the box.
- The family Christmas tree shrinks smaller and smaller throughout the movie. (IMDB) This could be because they trimmed it back considerably so it didn't take up the whole room.
Plot holes[]
- At the beginning, the Griswolds are driving home with their new Christmas tree, roots and all, yet they brought no tools with them. All four of the Griswold's together could not uproot a 25-foot tall tree, let alone strap it to the roof of their vehicle without tools or equipment. Clark could have had tools in the car, which the others could have retrieved for him.[1]
Movie Mistakes[]
Corrections[]
- When Clark Griswold is on a ladder putting Christmas lights up on his house the trees in the background are green and leafy, (not evergreen trees), indicating summertime, although there is snow on the ground and it is supposedly winter. Corrected by jerimiah As Clark climbs the ladder, all of the tall trees behind the house have no leaves and are even covered with snow. The bush that does have leaves next to the evergreen, beside being the only thing with leaves, could easily be any number of plants that retain their leaves throughout the winter.
- In the opening scene where Clark and the two guys in the pickup are racing, Clark pulls under a 18-wheeler. In the close up shots, you can see the truck's tyres from under the truck, but in the far away shots, you can see the safety bars that were put under the truck for the stunt driver so he wouldn't ride up under the truck. Corrected by jerimiah There are no bars or any other special enhancements that were done to the truck for this stunt. The only visible bars in the close up and far away shots are the ones that hold the mudflaps in the front and the same bar across the back wheels that's seen in all of the shots.
- When Clark is going up in the attic, he has a bag with two gifts in it. As he goes into the attic, there are three gifts in the bag. Corrected by MovieGuy We never see the contents of the bag as he's going to the attic and up the stairs. All we see is that he's carrying a large bag with some bows & ribbon coming out the top. There is no way to see how many presents are in the bag.
- At the beginning of the movie, when the Griswold family are in their car under the wood truck, everybody panics but not Russ, who sings or something like that. Corrected by MovieGuy Character choice: He's used to this kind of thing from his dad.
- In the scene where Eddie is introducing Snots, the first shot has the dog perfectly clean, but when Eddie explains why that is his name, in the next shot he is covered with snot. Corrected by William Bergquist When the camera is on Eddie explaining his name, you can hear Snots sneeze thereby covering himself with snot.
- Right before the grandma (Doris Roberts) faints due to the squirrel, Eddie's kids are on the brink of laughing before the scene cuts. Everyone is supposed to be scared. Corrected by Grumpy Scot Everyone might be scared at first, but once over the initial shock, kids could easily find the adult's panic amusing.
- When Clarke is hiding the gifts in the attic, he finds an old pink one but the shot later, it is blue. Corrected by Twotall Actually, it starts out as grey, then Clark blows the thick layer of dust away, and reveals the blue wrapping paper underneath the dust.
- When Rusty drops the reindeer on the lawn, the legs break off the one closest to him but later all the deer are intact until Clark loses it and beats them up. Corrected by Zwn Annwn There is a significant time that passes from when Rusty drops it to when Clark "loses it." There is no reason he couldn't have glued everything back on.
- When Clark is sliding on the saucer, he shoots out a shower of sparks when he crosses the street. Those old saucers were made of aluminum,and aluminum can't create sparks like other metal does. Corrected by MovieGuy Clark is extremely anal and a bit of a geek.given he's using his experimental lubricant, he's probably using a special saucer too.
- Throughout the movie there is an Advent Calendar that is opened from time to time, revealing what day of December it is. However, in the scene where the grandmothers are sitting in the den and one of them is decorating a gingerbread house, they are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which takes place in November. The grandmothers are watching a Christmas parade that takes place in Chicago; the announcer states that a parade float in a previous parade had knocked the 3rd floor windows out of the Marshall Field's Department Store. Marshall Field's doesn't have a New York City location so this parade isn't the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- When Santa Clause's sled passes in front of the moon at the end, why is the sea so dark? It wasn't in previous shots. Because when the moon is in a shot and they want to see the details on the moon's surface, they have to lower the exposure on the camera, which darkens the sky.
- In the original "Vacation" and the "European Vacation" movies, Russ is older than Audrey. In "Christmas Vacation," Audrey is older than Russ. Chevy Chase has said in interviews that the changing of the kids appearance as well as their age in Christmas Vacation was always part of the joke about how Clark forgets his kids names and never knows where they are etc.
- We later learn that Eddie's RV makes a lot of noise when driven. How did they ever make it into the Griswald driveway without anyone noticing when they first arrive? Eddie explains later that they "coasted in on fumes"; therefore, no loud engine noise.
- When Clark was trapped in the attic and fell through the ceiling in the bedroom, why didn't he just crawl out through the hole he just made onto the bunkbed? It would be impossible for him to fit through - the hole is too small, and the bed is too close to the ceiling.[2]