Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 43 | National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

For this last Film at 11 podcast episode of 2025, I have once again made the ill-advised mistake of inviting both my sons to watch a movie with me, together, at the same time. That never works out well, and certainly didn’t here. Somehow, all the squabbling and fighting that ensued (mostly, but not entirely off-camera) feel in the proper spirit of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

I wanted to watch a holiday movie with my boys, and this seemed like it would be appropriate enough. Few other comedies capture the stress and anxiety of the holidays as pointedly as Christmas Vacation. It’s a funny movie, but has real heart, and its theme of how cruelly corporate executives treat their employees is still distressingly relevant today.

Christmas Vacation is perhaps lighter on laughs than I remembered, but I’ve always liked the movie and still do. My boys split in their opinions of it, though I suspect Joseph was just in a foul mood from having to sit next to his brother for ninety minutes and wouldn’t have liked anything I put in front of him.

This will be both the last podcast episode and the last blog post of the year. I’m taking a Christmas vacation of my own for the next couple weeks, but will be back in the new year with more rambling about movies and related topics. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays while I’m away. See you in 2026.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) - The Griswolds
Title:National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Year of Release: 1989
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Watched On: Blu-ray
Also Available On: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
HBO Max
Hulu
Roku Channel
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

The Blu-ray

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was a fairly early release on the Blu-ray format, in late 2006. Unfortunately, that first disc had a really old, drab, and disappointing video transfer. Warner Home Video later remastered the film for a new Blu-ray in 2015, and that’s the edition I currently own in a SteelBook case. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray followed in 2022, but I haven’t made that upgrade. Frankly, I don’t feel much need to.

From the information I’ve been able to glean, the 4K edition comes from the same remastered source as the 2015 Blu-ray. Christmas Vacation doesn’t seem like the type of movie to gain much from native 4K encoding, beyond accentuating film grain even further than the heavy layer of it already present on the Blu-ray. Even in 1080p resolution, the remastered Blu-ray has a satisfyingly sharp image.

Most surprising about it is that video transfer is presented in a full-screen 16:9 aspect ratio, opened up slightly from its theatrical 1.85:1. In recent years, Warner has been better about preserving 1.85:1 movies with mild letterboxing, but this master must predate that policy change.

Even without HDR, the picture has strong colors and nice contrast. The abundance of red in Christmas clothing and decorations is very rich, and the white of snow is quite crisp. Blues lean too far toward teal for my liking, but I don’t imagine the 4K version handles that any differently. Perhaps Christmas lights might pop a little more in HDR, but they’re vibrant enough that I don’t feel I’m missing anything significant.

This Blu-ray from 2015 holds up plenty well enough on its own that I’m satisfied with it being the last copy of Christmas Vacation I need to own. Just be careful not to confuse this with any of the older Blu-ray editions, which were repackaged a number of times prior to the video remaster. As I said, that first Blu-ray transfer was rather lousy.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) Blu-ray SteelBook

The DTS-Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack is nothing to write home about, but the movie’s always had a pretty basic comedy sound mix that doesn’t get too creative. Surround activity is negligible and the track might be a little rolled-off. The Mavis Staples theme song sounds fine.

The only extras on the disc are an audio commentary and a trailer. The commentary features director Jeremiah Chechik and producer Matty Simmons, with actors Beverly D’Angelo (Ellen Griswold), Johnny Galecki (Rusty Griswold), Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie), and Miriam Flynn (Cousin Catherine).

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One thought on “Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 43 | National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)”

  1. We seem to watch this every year, but it’s definitely in the bottom half of holiday movies for me. I think we bought the BD within the last 5 years, but now I want to know if we have the newer transfer.

    <consults his My Movies app>

    If the app is to be believed, I have the 2006 transfer. Bummer. Back to the well, I guess! In the spirit of the season!

    Like

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