‘Christmas Vacation’ Has Become the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ of French Canada

While the Griswold family’s expedition to Europe doesn’t totally hold up these days, and their brief sojourn to Las Vegas is fondly remembered by precisely no one, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has established itself as a legit member of the holiday movie canon. The made-for-TV movie in which Randy Quaid battles a monkey and gets shipwrecked on a desert island? Not so much. 

Christmas Vacation’s enduring popularity is evidenced by Chevy Chase’s seasonal Q&A tours, the countless examples of useless merchandise and the everyday citizens who go overboard decorating their houses to match the Griswold family’s excessive, environmentally-disastrous lighting setup.

It’s also regularly screened in movie theaters, and not just because Chase is in town and has bills to pay. As reported by The Montreal Gazette, a French-dubbed version of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has become a major hit with audiences in Montreal, thanks to “participatory” screenings in the vein of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

While other French dubs of films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Ghostbusters have similarly been given the interactive treatment, beginning in 2019, the Christmas Vacation screenings have become recurring, sold-out Christmastime events. According to organizer Jarrett Mann, “In Quebec, the film is a cult hit, and it’s part of our culture. It’s on TV every Christmas and is possibly the most popular Christmas movie in Quebec.”

In Quebec, it’s not called Christmas Vacation, it’s known as Le Sapin a des Boules, which translates to The Fir Tree Has Balls (not a bad title, actually). And these screenings encourage audience members to shout things out during the movie. For instance, whenever characters kiss, viewers are supposed to yell “bisou” (which means “kiss”), and when the Griswolds’ yuppie neighbors are on screen, everybody cries out “snob!”

There are also lighting effects (Mann promises that audiences will be “blinded” by Clark Griswold’s decorations), and a cast of live actors on stage (unlike with Rocky Horror, they’re all fully clothed). 

The city also has a significant connection to the film. Its director, Jeremiah Chechik, grew up in Outremont (which officially became part of Montreal in 2002), and he studied theater and literature at Montreal’s McGill University. Now the director will be journeying back to Montreal to participate in the screenings. “I had no idea that it had this resonance,” Chechik told The Gazette. “I don’t usually watch dubbed films, but it is with great warm anticipation (that I am coming to see it in Montreal).” 

He also noted that he never expected the movie to become the phenomenon it is today. “The film was successful in its time and you think, okay it’s gone now, and the fact that it keeps coming back and back and back, it’s surprising to me in a good way,” Chechik explained. “It was always my hope that it would last, but I didn’t think it would achieve a familial touchtone thing, where people show it to their kids. I guess it’s like an old song that everybody sings together.”

Incidentally, Chechik only landed the Christmas Vacation because the original director, Chris Columbus, bailed on the project due to Chase’s dickishness. So Chechik was hired, and Columbus made Home Alone instead. A Christmas miracle!