National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Revealing mistake: When Clark is outside at night rigging up the lights, it seems as though the moon is a little too large in the sky. (00:29:35)

Continuity mistake: The retractable attic staircase is a type held closed only by light spring pressure, not a latch, but it doesn't budge when Clark jumps on it. When he initially opened it, and later when his wife does the same, it opens normally with a light tug from below on the cord.

Visible crew/equipment: After the cat is electrocuted and begins smoking underneath the chair, the next camera angle still has the smoke machine in the shot next to the chair.

Adam Hurd

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Todd, the snob neighbor, falls down the stairs, his wife Margot is not visible in the bedroom. (00:38:55)

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: When Clark falls from the top of his house, he grabs the gutter. It bends and a icicle is thrown from it to his neighbor's house. You can see the thread which guides it. (00:24:27)

Dr Wilson

Factual error: Prior to the cat being electrocuted, Clark is seen plugging the lights into a 110 volt outlet. However, when Rusty resets the breaker, it is a double pull breaker that is reset, which typically provides 220 volts, and the breaker is off instead of tripped. (01:09:00)

Continuity mistake: When the family is on the front lawn to inaugurate the Christmas lights, between shots a blue Lincoln at the curb disappears and a station wagon appears across the street.

Visible crew/equipment: When Eddie and Clark are putting the burned chair in the garbage, you can see the shadow of the camera following them.

Continuity mistake: When Eddie and Clark are drinking eggnog, Eddie knocks down the decoration with propellers on it. When Eddie walks to the table with the nuts on it the camera shots cut from Eddie to Clark attempting to fix the decoration. In each shot that we go back to Clark, the number of propellers left on the decoration change even after Clark has given up fixing it. (00:45:55)

Continuity mistake: When Aunt Bethany asks "Do you hear it?", she leans forward in her chair. In the next shot she's suddenly sitting back, and leans forward again when she says, "It's a funny squeaky sound."

Scott215

Revealing mistake: When Julia Louis-Dreyfus has the dog jump on her, you can tell it's a stunt double. In the shot of Julia, the gem on the back of her sequence dress and her hair doesn't go below the gem. When Snot is about to jump on her, the hair completely covers the gem and is much fuller and looks like a wig.

Bishop73

Other mistake: When Clarke and Eddy are drinking eggnog by the tree, and Snots is drinking the tree water, look at the tree's trunk. It's a birch tree not a pine.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The blinds are ripped out of the neighbors' window frame when Clark "harvests" his replacement tree from outside. However, when Margot is outside telling Todd to "slug that creep in the face", you can see blinds are still in the window. (01:17:20 - 01:21:55)

Revealing mistake: The family runs upstairs with the dog and the squirrel and then runs downstairs. You can see a cut in the movie, because the rug moves. (01:21:30)

Dr Wilson

Continuity mistake: When the squirrel jumps of the Christmas tree it lands on the floor, but in the next shot it is on the coffee table. (01:19:50)

dell

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, the Griswold family makes marks in the snow when they arrive at the tree which Clark wants. A shot later, the marks are bigger even though they haven't moved. (00:08:05)

Dr Wilson

Continuity mistake: When Clark has the entire family outside to witness the lighting of the house, the positions of the in-laws change instantly from being clumped together to strung out in a line, depending on whether the shot is overhead or at ground level.

Scott215

Todd: Hey, Griswold. Where do you think you're gonna put a tree that big?
Clark: Bend over and I'll show you.
Todd: You've got a lot of nerve talking to me like that, Griswold.
Clark: I wasn't talking to you.

More quotes from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Trivia: Clark Griswold in the attic watching old movies dressed in a woman's turban and gloves to keep warm is not only funny but a reference to the Norma Desmond character from "Sunset Boulevard", who watches her old films to remember her Hollywood glory days.

Scott215

More trivia for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Question: What is the name of the Christmas Tree farm they went to to get their tree?

Answer: They didn't go to a Christmas tree farm. He took them to a huge forest to get one most likely because it would be easier to get one free then to pay for one.

They went to a tree farm. After running off the road and jumping the snowbank the wagon crashes through a sign that says "Trees." Clark then says, "We're here...and we made good time too." The humor is Clark forgoes a normal "farmed" tree for the "wild" monster he takes home.

False. They may have run over the tree farm sign, but they absolutely did not harvest a tree from the tree farm.

Answer: They never went to a tree farm. Even though there is a sign that says "Trees", there is no employee there to greet them or even discuss how much the tress cost. Plus, trees on a tree farm are usually smaller and are always lined up in a row. The trees seen by the Griswold's are extremely large and are scattered about like what would be seen in a regular forest which is where they went.

They are never shown in the "store" area of the tree farm, so you can't say that there is nobody working there. They jump the snowbank, it shows them gathering themselves in the car, and the next scene is in the wilderness. It's a small, rundown tree farm, but it is a tree farm business, with a plowed parking lot, garbage cans, lights, other customers, etc. These tree farms usually had pre-cut trees for purchase, but you could also walk out and cut down your own for the "experience" if you wanted to. As someone who has walked a couple miles to get a Christmas tree in December in Minnesota, I can say with absolute certainty that this is accurate.

oldbaldyone

Answer: It was a tree farm (the car literally flies through a sign that says "Christmas Trees"). There's a deleted scene after they crash and walk to find a tree. Realizing that they didn't have a saw to cut the tree, the family walks to the lot attendant (an odd man, reclining in a lawn chair, wearing a Santa jacket and hat) to ask to borrow a saw. There is a conversation between them where Clark is told that they don't supply saws, but he gave him a shovel. THIS explains how the tree got dug out of the ground. You can actually see a picture of this scene on an old DVD cover.

More questions & answers from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

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