Almost 30 years later and it's still great

Very funny movie. One of my favorite Christmas movies. Great cast.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is yet another factory product that plays more like a marketing strategy than a comedy. Like the other farces bearing the National Lampoon brand label, it's a comedy of obliviousness - family man Chevy Chase refuses to alter his sentimental notions of family rituals despite repeatedly being slammed in the face with evidence of how far short of his expectations they fall. Here, the word vacation is a misnomer. The Griswold family, headed by Chase, doesn't go anywhere. Neither does the film.

Jay Carr

Boston Globe

In this third outing for the Griswolds - following the dismal National Lampoon's European Vacation in 1985 - the satirical edge has given way to sentimentality and a whiff of smugness, while the black humor has degenerated into broad slapstick. It's a tribute to first-time director Jeremiah Chechik's fine sense of timing that the obvious physical gags still generate some substantial laughs, though they arrive almost in spite of Hughes' tired script. [1 Dec 1989, p.Friday A]

Dave Kehr

Chicago Tribune