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Quotes

Clark: Oh, I was just smelling - smiling. I was just blouse - browsing. I, uh, heh heh. Well, I guess it just wouldn't... Oh hee hee, it wouldn't be the Christmas shopping season if the stores were any less hooter than they - HOTTER than they are. Whew. It is warm in here, isn't it?

Mary: You have your coat on.

Clark: Yes, oh do I? Yeah, it is a bit nipply out. I mean nippy. What am I saying, nipple?

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Mistakes

When Clark is outside, trying to get the lights to work, Ellen comes out the door, pulling a sweater around her shoulders. First it is on one shoulder, then both, then one, and at the end of the scene she has it on properly, with both arms in the sleeves. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) - 17 corrections

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, starring Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy Chase, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis (add more)

Genres: Comedy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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When Clark Griswold is on a ladder putting Christmas lights up on his house the trees in the background are green and leafy, (not evergreen trees), indicating summertime, although there is snow on the ground and it is supposedly winter. [As Clark climbs the ladder, all of the tall trees behind the house have no leaves and are even covered with snow. The bush that does have leaves next to the evergreen, beside being the only thing with leaves, could easily be any number of plants that retain their leaves throughout the winter.]
Edit Corrected by jerimiah Time
In the opening scene where Clark and the two guys in the pickup are racing, Clark pulls under a 18-wheeler. In the close up shots, you can see the truck's tyres from under the truck, but in the far away shots, you can see the safety bars that were put under the truck for the stunt driver so he wouldn't ride up under the truck. [There are no bars or any other special enhancements that were done to the truck for this stunt. The only visible bars in the close up and far away shots are the ones that hold the mudflaps in the front and the same bar across the back wheels that's seen in all of the shots.]
Edit Corrected by jerimiah
When Clark is going up in the attic, he has a bag with two gifts in it. As he goes into the attic, there are three gifts in the bag. [We never see the contents of the bag as he's going to the attic and up the stairs. All we see is that he's carrying a large bag with some bows & ribbon coming out the top. There is no way to see how many presents are in the bag.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
When the neighbors fall onto the floor of their bedroom when Clark's Christmas lights finally go on, you can tell a stunt double is standing in for the female neighbor as she falls down at the foot of the bed. [HOW can you tell? What's different? Clothes, hair, face, body?]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
At the beginning of the movie, when the Griswold family are in their car under the wood truck, everybody panics but not Russ, who sings or something like that. [Character choice: He's used to this kind of thing from his dad.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com Time
In the scene where Eddie is introducing Snots, the first shot has the dog perfectly clean, but when Eddie explains why that is his name, in the next shot he is covered with snot. [When the camera is on Eddie explaining his name, you can hear Snots sneeze thereby covering himself with snot.]
Edit Corrected by William Bergquist
Right before the grandma (Doris Roberts) faints due to the squirrel, Eddie's kids are on the brink of laughing before the scene cuts. Everyone is supposed to be scared. [Everyone might be scared at first, but once over the initial shock, kids could easily find the adult's panic amusing.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Some things in the chamber of Russ change from the scene where you see the grandfather in the bed and Clarke passing through the floor. [That's not very specific. Does the bed change positions? Are there different posters on the walls? Is the wallpaper a different color? At least give one example of something that changes between the two shots.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
Watch in slow-motion when Eddie's dog passes through the door to chase the squirrel. The door is actually broken before. [As per the rules of this site, watching in slow-mo does not qualify this as a valid mistake.]
Edit Corrected by Mister Ed
When Clarke is hiding the gifts in the attic, he finds an old pink one but the shot later, it is blue. [Actually, it starts out as grey, then Clark blows the thick layer of dust away, and reveals the blue wrapping paper underneath the dust.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
When Rusty drops the reindeer on the lawn, the legs break off the one closest to him but later all the deer are intact until Clark loses it and beats them up. [There is a significant time that passes from when Rusty drops it to when Clark "loses it." There is no reason he couldn't have glued everything back on.]
Edit Corrected by Zwn Annwn
When Clark is sliding on the saucer, he shoots out a shower of sparks when he crosses the street. Those old saucers were made of aluminum,and aluminum can't create sparks like other metal does. [Clark is extremely anal and a bit of a geek.given he's using his experimental lubricant, he's probably using a special saucer too.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
Throughout the movie there is an Advent Calendar that is opened from time to time, revealing what day of December it is. However, in the scene where the grandmothers are sitting in the den and one of them is decorating a gingerbread house, they are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which takes place in November. [The grandmothers are watching a Christmas parade that takes place in Chicago; the announcer states that a parade float in a previous parade had knocked the 3rd floor windows out of the Marshall Field's Department Store. Marshall Field's doesn't have a New York City location so this parade isn't the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.]
Edit
When Santa Clause's sled passes in front of the moon at the end, why is the sea so dark? It wasn't in previous shots. [Because when the moon is in a shot and they want to see the details on the moon's surface, they have to lower the exposure on the camera, which darkens the sky.]
Edit
In the original "Vacation" and the "European Vacation" movies, Russ is older than Audrey. In "Christmas Vacation," Audrey is older than Russ. [Chevy Chase has said in interviews that the changing of the kids appearance as well as their age in Christmas Vacation was always part of the joke about how Clark forgets his kids names and never knows where they are etc.]
Edit
We later learn that Eddie's RV makes a lot of noise when driven. How did they ever make it into the Griswald driveway without anyone noticing when they first arrive? [Eddie explains later that they "coasted in on fumes"; therefore, no loud engine noise.]
Edit
When Clark was trapped in the attic and fell through the ceiling in the bedroom, why didn't he just crawl out through the hole he just made onto the bunkbed? [It would be impossible for him to fit through - the bed is too close to the ceiling.]
Edit