Personal Stories: A Tweenage Holiday Movie Memory

Growing up, Christmas was always a special time in my family. Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we'd pull the Christmas tree box from its spot in the old shed in our backyard. Gambling on whether there would be mice in it or not, I'd help my mother bring the tree inside and pull the pieces of the tree from its deteriorating box and assemble them in the living room. After assembling and decorating it, we'd pile presents under it over the next several weeks in anticipation of Christmas Eve, the night everyone opened presents at our house. It was always a relatively small family gathering; my brother and his family would stop by for the evening to join my mother, father, and me. After an evening spent playing with new toys, I'd fall asleep waiting to see what Santa would bring me during the night. He always seemed to know just what I wanted! In any case, that's how it went year after year during my childhood, and it's the only Christmas tradition I knew...until my twelfth Christmas.

Traditions Rattled

At twelve years old, being a bit of a goody-goody, I was fully immersed in the world of Scouting. I'd come up through the Cub Scout ranks of Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, and Webelo's and was now a Boy Scout. By the age of twelve, every year during the holidays, I'd done a fair amount of Christmas caroling at the local nursing home, popcorn and mistletoe sales, and good deeds. As a reward for conducting a very successful fundraiser and charming the hearts of senior citizens at a nursing home, our Scoutmaster took us out to a movie night at the local air force base theater. The movie was "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," and boy was I exposed to a different Christmas tradition!

Small Family vs. Extended Family Christmases

Clark Griswold's family Christmas contrasted sharply with the quaint get-together I was accustomed to. With both his and his wife's parents, his senile aunt and crotchety uncle, and his crazy cousin Eddie and Eddie's family, it was quite a houseful. While my own family Christmas usually involved about seven people, Clark had more than a dozen people crammed into his house. Whereas my family's Christmas was a peaceful, happy occasion, Clark's descended into near anarchy as one thing after another went wrong. But in both families, mine and the Griswold's, you could tell that there was love, and the parents in both families tried to make sure the kids had fond memories.

Memorable Quotes

Naturally, being twelve, and amongst other twelve and thirteen year olds, the potty humor invoked the greatest reaction from us. Randy Quaid resurrected his famous anti-hero role of Cousin Eddie from "National Lampoon's Vacation" to have many memorable scenes in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". Who can forget the scene with Cousin Eddie, a beer in one hand, naked inside his bathrobe, draining the septic line from his trailer into the storm drain exclaiming to the snooty neighbor, "Shitter was full!" After Aunt Bethany's cat chewed through the Christmas light cord and is immediately fried, Cousin Eddie's line, "If that cat had nine lives, it sure used 'em all" also scored some major laughs from our juvenile crew. Not having a backwards, idiotic relative like Cousin Eddie to relate to, he quickly became one of my favorite childhood movie characters.

Establishing My Own Traditions

Marrying into a family that continued the small family get-together tradition, I found myself trying to make sure my kids had a memorable Christmas, but longing for an extended family experience. We'd meet at her parents' house and have a Christmas dinner and open presents. Santa would visit on Christmas morning and the kids would spend the weekend playing with their new toys. We'd go for a drive to see Christmas lights. Since the divorce, I've found myself trying to spend time with my kids, creating new traditions in my new relationship, and adapting to my new partner's family traditions. All signs point to large family gatherings being the new norm, and the cast of characters is as colorful as Clark's.