A Canadian Family Has Recreated Clark Griswold’s Unhinged Christmas Decorations

The tragic story of a middle-aged patriarch with undiagnosed brain injuries that cause him to act erratically, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has become a seasonal staple for many. It’s just not the holidays until Cousin Eddie empties his septic tank, that cat gets electrocuted and Clark fantasizes about cheating on his amazing wife for the umpteenth time. 

Aside from his raging, not terribly realistic libido, Clark’s other big problem is his tendency to go way overboard, often at the expense of good taste and his own personal safety. Perhaps the best example of this is his excessive Christmas lighting display, which involves covering nearly every single inch of his house in bulbs, using up as much energy as some small countries.

Despite the fact that Christmas Vacation could be read as a cautionary tale, one real life family man north of the border has followed in the Griswold family’s footsteps and recreated Clark’s unhinged decorating attempt.

The Turcotte family of Ottawa, Ontario has an annual tradition: They put up decorations to honor a different holiday film each year, not just for the attention, but in order to raise money for charity. In the past, they’ve paid homage to movies like Elf and Home Alone. This year, in addition to the Griswold lights, the decorations are also incorporating elements from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Die Hard.

Okay, so the lights aren’t quite as extreme as Clark’s display — for example, they don’t cover every inch of the house like his lights did. But in this Canadian family’s defense, Clark didn’t raise a dime for charity. And they did use 7,500 incandescent bulbs, and even extended the lights into their neighbor’s property in order to properly get into the Griswold spirit. 

“It was a no-brainer when he asked,” said the neighbor, who clearly wasn’t a fashionable yet hate-filled yuppie like some neighbors. 

This isn’t the first time that someone has taken their decorating cues from Chevy Chase during the holidays. As we’ve mentioned before, a few years ago, one fan was so dedicated to making his home look like the Griswolds’ abode that he filled it full of costumed mannequins and stuck a fake second story onto his bungalow. The city even fined him hundreds of dollars for the display, prompting his neighbors to pool their money to help him out.

Again, it could be argued that the moral of Christmas Vacation is that Clark Griswold makes a lot of mistakes and shouldn’t be emulated by anyone. Just a thought.