Don't listen to the negative reviews

The first must-see film of the year.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS & SPECIALS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.This hilarious 3rd film from the "Vacation" movies series is now its most popular. I love the original "Vacation" however "Christmas Vacation" is just as funny maybe even funnier.In this film the "I want to be the worlds greatest dad" Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is hosting a huge Christmas season at his home. Both his parents and his in-laws come in for the holidays and the party is also crashed by cousin Eddie. As we all know Christmas is never perfect and for Clark he sets himself up to a world of huge appointment.Everything Clark seems to do in this film is BIG. From getting the tree to decorating his him. He wants to do everything to the max and for all us who had to cut down trees and put up Christmas lights we understand his frustration.The film was released in 1989. I have seen this film every Christmas since. I never get tired of it. Its now part of my holiday tradition. I can honestly say the film is now a classic.You do not need to of seen the previous films to know what's going. All you need is a funny bone.

I took my parents to see this opening night which was December 1, 1989. I am glad I did. All 3 of us could relate to the things we feel WE Must Do" at Christmas Time. From getting the tree to decorating the home! WE put huge expectations hoping everything will turn out fine and of course they don't. This was the 3rd "Vacation" film and most likely the most popular. Millions of us could relate the original "Vacation". The family road trip during the Summer. However 99% could relate to something in "Christmas Vacation". In this film it is of course holiday time and Clark wants to have a big old fashioned family Christmas. This means not only is his parents coming for Christmas but so is his in-laws/ Most importantly however Randy Quaid returns as Cousin Eddie. This film is a laugh a minute. If you don't like cussing and are prudish stay away. I have seen this film every year since 1989 and I still laugh as hard as I did when I saw the first time. The only film I think I have seen more is "The Wizard of Oz". If you have big family gatherings then watch this with them. Everyone will have a good time.

Despite being a fan of National Lampoon's "Vacation" and "European Vacation" movies, for whatever reason I had not sat down and watched this Christmas edition of the series. I had expectations for high humor coming into the viewing, but was left with the bad taste of a series starting to turn stale.For a basic plot summary, this movie sees Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), and kids Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) hosting "the relatives" for Christmas. This obviously includes Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and Co. as well. Per the typical formula, everything goes to hell-in-a-hand-basket despite the best intents of Clark.While the first two Vacation-series movies seem fresh and genuinely funny, "Christmas Vacation" seems stale and overbearing (like all the comedy jokes/situations are "reaches"). Sure, there are some legitimately laugh-out-loud moments in the film, but mostly it falls pretty flat.The main reason for the disappointing effort here is the casting changes. Lewis and Galecki, while both proved afterwards to be pretty fair actors in their own right, are terrible for the roles of Audrey/Rusty (key characters that provide so much of the humor in the earlier films). Maybe it was just the fact that the "original" Russ/Audrey can never quite be topped.Thus, while I was hoping for great things from this experience, I can say now that I won't be watching it next Xmas season (or maybe any further out, either). It just fails to capture that quirky sense of humor that its predecessors nailed so succinctly.

This is a fun little holiday classic and maybe the best National Lampoons movie out of the lot. Anyway, it is about a father trying too hard to give his family the perfect Xmas experience but fails miserly at it and many full belly laughs are the result. The film is charming even if it doesn't seem as funny as it was when you were a kid. But whatever, usually Xmas comedies are a fail; Office Xmas Party, I'm looking at you. I hope Hollywood never remakes this.. but I would be surprised if they did remake it just out of spite and to grab people's goats and run them around the mud a bit. You know the score. But yeah, this is a solid family film.