25 Days of Christmas - The Nice List: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I have now watched this film in its entirety 3 times this holiday season alone.  I honestly don't think I could go a Christmas without watching this.  Today was even with most of my extended family, amidst yelling around the room at each other.  Chevy Chase reprises his role of Clark W. Griswold, with Beverly D'Angelo as his wife, and Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis are their children, Russ and Audrey.  They all have to partake in the Griswold Family Christmas - with grandparents and great aunt and uncle too.  No one is happy, but it's a right of passage.  Clark decorates the house with lights (eventually) and they go chop down a Christmas tree, torture the neighbors with their tackiness, and provide a wonderful observable holiday for the rest of us to live up to, and surpass.  Of course Cousin Eddy (Randy Quaid) arrives with his family in their RV (recreational vehicle for the uninitiated) causing havoc and making people a little crazier, including kidnapping Clark's boss on Christmas Eve, causing the police to get involved.  The tree burns down, the dog throws up under the table, the turkey is overcooked, but it's the "hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse."  

My family quotes this movie continuously.  I knew I'd found a soulmate in college when a girl I'd be spending the summer with after barely knowing said she'd buy me something "ree-al nice" in Cousin Eddy's voice. One Christmas my grandparents were snowed in for the night and we put this on and I'd never seen my grandfather laugh so hard.   It's a movie that you either love, or you've never seen.  So I recommend you  go see it as soon as possible.   Also, thank you to everyone who has participated in our 25 Days of Christmas with comments and sharing your own choices.  Please listen to our Christmas special podcast that comes out tomorrow!