Oh man, I love Christmas Vacation you guys. Unfortunately, it’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen the whole thing all the way through. It’s actually one of the few Christmas tapes that my parents had that I haven’t added to my own collection. This was definitely one that my dad brought to the table and not my mom as she’s more a fan of the older flicks, while my dad loves pretty much anything the original SNL crew did. I don’t have quite the same connection that Rickey does with it (hopefully he’ll jump on and explain exactly what that is), but Christmas Vacation was always the one I wanted to watch deep down while we were watching It’s A Wonderful Life again.

It’s funny watching this after not seeing it for a while and also as a bit more of a grown up. I can completely relate to his desire for a perfect Christmas and feeling like things are going to shit. I can also relate to not getting a Christmas bonus even though you worked really hard and no one told you otherwise. At least he got a jelly of the month subscription, we got asked to work overtime. And, yeah, to be honest, it would have been nice to get the boss there with a bow on his head to give him a piece of my mind, but alas, I’m not related to anyone quite like Cousin Eddie. Anyway, I think you’d be hard pressed not to relate to at least some part of this movie. Having to bunk with your brother or sister while family’s visiting, trying to keep the families from killing each other, trying to act like you like everyone, getting locked in the attic and having to wear old lady clothes. You know, the usual holiday craziness.

I was also surprised with how well I remembered the movie even though I hadn’t seen it in a while. Man, I knew this thing backwards and forwards. I remembered that Julie Louis Dreyfus was in it and even that Juliette Lewis played Audrey. I remembered the old aunt and uncle, the cat gag, everything. I did NOT realized that Russ was played by Roseanne and Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki, so that was a nice little surprise. I also think I based my whole sledding life on the scene where Clark greases up the metal disc sled and goes light speed down the hill and through the tonw. Not only was I laughing my head off the whole time, but I was thinking back to when I was a kid and loved going down the hill in the park across the street from my house and sled as far as I could. Heck, I even loved jumping on it and standing all the way down. Hopefully, we’ll get a good amount of snow and find a hill to go sledding.

Really, if you haven’t seen Christmas Vacation in a while or you watch it every year, give it another look and have a great time. I know I did.