National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) - 65 mistakes

Revealing: At one point when Clark is flying down the hill through snow drifts on his saucer sled after greasing it up you can see the guide wire pulling the sled.

Continuity: In an early shot of the outside of the house, the motorhome that Eddie and family show up in is parked in the driveway. The problem is, they don't appear until much later in the film.

Continuity: When the Griswold's are driving to the tree farm, they are being harassed by the rednecks in the truck.  Several shots of the front of the truck show only two passengers, but one view of the truck through its rear window shows three passengers.

Continuity: After Eddie et al arrive at the Griswolds, "Snots" is introduced. When everyone else has gone into the house, Clark is left outside with the dog. A shot shows the dog at Clark's side, and if you look at Clark's sleeve, he's wearing a sweater, but actually has on a windbreaker. At the end of the movie, Clark's wearing the sweater. Apparently the shot was taken of him and the dog, and edited back into the film early on.

Continuity: 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.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before Clark goes down the hill on the saucer sled you see the view down the hill. If you look carefully at the right of the screen you can see two pinkish cables stretch into the distance. These are the pyrotechnics that make the explosions when Clark sets off. You can see it clearly on the DVD version, but not too clearly in the VHS one.

Continuity: In the opening scene, when the family is on their way to get a Christmas tree, they get into a road rage battle. If you look closely at the shape of the headlights, the car the family is in and the stunt car are noticeably different.

Other: When the Santa Sleigh is launched in the air by the ignited sewage, the sleigh flies over the moon. Now on the DVD version of the film, it's not clearly visible, but on the VHS version, you can clearly see there's a box around the sleigh that looks like the sleigh is under a microscope slide.

Continuity: When Uncle Louis drops the match in front of where Eddie empties the "chemical toilet" if you look VERY close you can see the rope that launches him into the air.

Visible crew/equipment: When Clark gets his "Christmas bonus" he starts going off about what a lousy guy his boss is. During his outburst you can see a crew member's head pass by the bottom left corner of the screen

Continuity: When Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany arrive, the wreath on the front door is lit with Christmas lights. When the door opens from inside the home, there are no lights on the wreath....it is just plain green.

Other: After Eddie kidnaps Clark's boss, he drives off and if you look at the ground the snow looks like soap bubbles, because you see them waving around.

Visible crew/equipment: I've noticed in a couple of scenes where Chevy Chase and Beverly D'angelo are standing in the front hallway of their house: you can see the wooden rafters of the ceiling of the set in the dining room.

Continuity: When Clark is sliding down the hill on the sled, several times you can see fins on the bottom of the sled to help whoever was riding the sled control the direction a little better. When Clark is rubbing the oil on the bottom of the sled before he starts the sled is completely flat on the bottom.

Factual error: Clark has too many lights on his house causing the city to go dark. There is a scene where the power plant needs to boost their output. There is a close-up of a guy flipping the switch. Look at the way they spelled auxiliary - auxilliary.

Continuity: When the squirrel is being chased by Eddie's dog, it passes through the broken door and then vanishes.

Continuity: When Clark and Eddie are standing next to the Christmas tree drinking eggnog, when Eddie walks over to the decoration and knocks it over, in one shot his glass is less than half full and in the next it is almost completely full and he takes a gulp.

Revealing: When Eddie leaves Frank's mansion, the "snow" wiggles on the driveway.

Revealing: When Clark starts to set up his Christmas lights, there is a scene where the ladder collapses. If you look closely you can see the wire coming out from under his jacket to keep him from falling forward.

Other: Another note about Clark's falling through the ceiling and onto his son's bed: Take note of the shot of him in the attic after falling through the ceiling. He's standing on the upper bunk of the bed now, but from the shot in the attic, he's only down to his knees or so. Assuming his home's ceiling joists are 8 inches or so, then the mattress of the upper bunk would have to be no more than, say, 10 inches from the ceiling for that much of him to still be in the attic while standing on the bed. I've never seen a bunk bed whose upper bed gave you less than a foot of space between mattress and ceiling!

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When the squirrel jumps out of the tree and the whole family is hiding around the corner in the front entry, the camera alternates shots frequently from the front of the family to the back of the family. Each time the angle changes, Ellen's stance changes from her arm being around Russ to her arm at her side.

Other: When Clarke is on the sled, there's one frontal shot when the snow flies in the air before he touches it.

Continuity: The Christmas tree is still visible after it has burnt down.

Factual error: When the Griswold family are going to buy a christmas tree, they are in the mountains. There are no mountains in the Midwest.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Clarke is outside of the house with Eddie's dog, all the police cars have disappeared.

Continuity: When all the family is outside to see the christmas lights, there is an aerial shot of them. Clarke starts to say "Joy to the world" before you actually hear him say it.

Continuity: When Clark finally opens the christmas lights, he has the wires in his hands. The shot later, when all the family comes, the wires are not there and his arms are wide open.

Visible crew/equipment: When Clarke is on his sled, just before he crashes into the cabin, the shadow of the camera is visible on it.

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

Revealing: 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.

Continuity: After we see the cat pulling on the strand of white Christmas tree lights, there is a close up shot of the electrical outlet with one cord plugged into it. When Clark sees the lights go out, he sees both the colored and the white lights go out at the same time. Clark has to plug in two cords to make both sets of lights come back on. Either the colored lights should have been out to begin with, or both strands of lights should have come on with one plug.

Continuity: When Clark is outside hanging the lights, he staples the sleeve of his shirt, under his wrist, to the eaves of the house. In the next shot, as he is pulling, the shirt is stapled over his wrist.

Other: When Uncle Lewis lights the cigar that sets the Christmas tree on fire, watch closely. It shows side shots of Clark eating his dinner, and you can see the tree in the living room. The camera cuts back to Lewis lighting his cigar, and then back to Clark at the exact same angle as before. However, this time the tree is gone. Then you see the flames shoot out.

Revealing: 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.

Revealing: When Clarke notices that Lewis has caught on fire, he's only burning when he pushes him on the ground.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When the squirrel jumps of the Christmas tree it lands on the floor, but in the next shot it is on the coffee table.

Revealing: When Lewis's coat catches on fire after the Christmas tree explodes, the square on his coat that holds the "fire" is evident.

Revealing: When Clarke cuts the ropes on the Christmas tree in the living room, if you watch in slow motion you can see large wooden poles connected to the branches of the tree as they burst through the windows.

Other: 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.

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: When Clarke and Ellen are in the bed and Clarke's hands are sticky, you can see that he actually grabs her hair to give the illusion that they are stuck.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: The christmas tree is visible from the dining room, but when Lewis goes beside it to smoke a cigar, you can't see him. When the tree is on fire, you don't see Lewis again and you can only see a branch of the tree.

Revealing: Leaves can be seen on several trees around the Griswold house, which is supposed to be in Chicago and its obviously supposed to be wintertime.

Revealing: When Clark grabs the curtain to smother the fire on Louis it is a much younger stuntman with dark brown hair.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany have just arrived and Aunt Bethany says, "Oh dear, did I break wind?" Ellen helps Aunt Bethany fully remove her coat. Seconds later, within the same scene, Ellen is still helping Bethany off with her coat.

Continuity: When Clarke is installing the Christmas lights, the rope on the ladder keeps appearing and disappearing.

Visible crew/equipment: When Ellen opens the door after Clark falls from the tree, there's a strange white thing visible for a few frames at the upper left of the door. Might be the hand of a crew member opening the door.

Revealing: When Clarke and Eddie push the couch to see what happened, the burned cat is only visible in closeups. There's also a blue object next to the couch that look like an iron that is creating the smoke effect.

Continuity: When Clark's neighbours return home, the man says to Clark, "Where do you think you're going to put a tree that big?" The trunk is very large, bigger then Clark's feet. Clark replies, "Bend over and I'll show you." Then Clark cuts the tree trunk - it is very thin and easy for him to cut.

Continuity: When Clark is holding the gutter, it bends and ice is thrown from inside of it. The problem is that you can't see any ice during the first shot when it bends, and also that the ice goes in the wrong direction.

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

Other: The family runs upstairs with the dog and the squirrel and then runs downstair. You can see a cut in the movie, because the rug moves.

Continuity: When Clark is going into the attic to hide presents, the ladder that smacks him in the face is a sliding ladder, but later when he is shut in the attic and uses the ladder to attract attention it is a folding ladder.

Continuity: After Clarke falls in the bush, the gutter repairs itself.

Continuity: When Todd, the snob neighbor, fall's down the stairs, his wife Margot is not visible in the bedroom.

Continuity: In the shot where it shows Lewis on fire, you can see it's not William Hickey, but a "younger" stuntman.

Continuity: When Clarke is going crazy, he cuts the baluster. But it's still in place the scene later, when the family have problems with the squirrel.

Continuity: When Clark's uncle drops the match that sets the sewer on fire, his toupee falls off and at the end of the scene you can see him trying to put it back on, although it's burnt pretty badly. In the final scene where everyone is dancing around, his toupee is back on and in perfect condition.

Revealing: When Clarke is puting christmas lights on the top of his house, the ladder falls but stays at the same angle.

Other: 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.

Continuity: When Clark is outside at night rigging up the lights, it seems as though the moon is a little too large in the sky.