Plot
As Christmas approaches, Chicago resident Clark Wilhelm Griswold Jr. (Chevy Chase) gets into the spirit of the holiday, and his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) have easily noticed. On a quest for "The Griswold Family Christmas Tree," the family starts to develop hypothermia and must rip a tree out of the ground, since no one brought any tools to cut it down. Undeterred, Clark pushes ahead with his plans for a "good, old-fashioned family Christmas."
Clark has invited Ellen's parents Art Smith (E. G. Marshall) and Frances Smith (Doris Roberts), his own parents Clark Wilhelm Griswold Sr (John Randolph) and Nora Griswold (Diane Ladd), and his Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) to spend the holidays at the Griswold house in Chicago. But in spite of all the good intentions and careful planning, Christmas plans start to go awry.
Clark is obsessed with making everything go perfectly during the holiday season, but as soon as everyone arrives, things start going haywire. The situation worsens when the Griswolds receive some uninvited surprise guests from Kansas -- cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her slovenly husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), and two of their kids, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen).
Clark decorates the outside of the house with thousands of lights, enough to make the power company turn on their auxiliary nuclear generator. However, he accidentally wires them up to his garage light, causing him to believe he has fixed them every time someone turns it on. Clark also annoys his snobby next door neighbors, Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) and his wife Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), blinding them with the lights and breaking their window and stereo with an icicle that falls from his roof gutter. Also, Clark has nostalgic moments of Christmas past when he is accidentally locked in the attic, and watches an old home movie from a past Christmas (which ends when the attic door is opened and he falls through to the floor below).
Even with his bumbling ways, Clark, who works for a company that produces food colorings, additives, and preservatives, manages to keep things going for himself and his relatives. Eddie and his family have lost their home and are now living in the dilapidated RV they used to reach Clark's house. Meanwhile, Clark is waiting for his Christmas bonus from work, having paid in advance to get a swimming pool put in the backyard once the weather warms up. He is shocked when he instead receives a subscription to the "Jelly of the Month" club, and he snaps and unleashes a string of insults against his boss, Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray).
Clark's ranting prompts Eddie to drive across town, kidnap Frank, and bring him back to the Griswolds so Clark can confront him. Frank admits that he was wrong to eliminate Christmas bonuses without telling his employees. A SWAT team raids the house, but Frank persuades them that the situation is all a misunderstanding and reinstates Clark's bonus, increasing it by 20% as well.
As the family gathers outside on the lawn, Uncle Lewis throws his cigar down a storm drain, igniting a methane gas buildup from sewage that Eddie had earlier dumped in there while emptying the RV's toilet. The resulting explosion blasts a Santa lawn decoration into the sky, and everyone watches as Aunt Bethany sings part of The Star-Spangled Banner and Clark realizes that his dream of a perfect family Christmas has come true. The Santa and reindeer lawn ornaments fly across the sky, having been propelled by the explosion.
Read more about this topic: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
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