On December 1, 1989, Warner Brothers Pictures released their third installment in the National Lampoon Vacation franchise — Christmas Vacation. The film did not disappoint and was equally as outrageous as its two predecessors. Today, it's regarded as a modern Christmas classic. The movie debuted at No. 2 at the box office grossing $11,750,203 during its opening weekend, although it received mixed reviews from the public and critics. Now, take a look into some of the lesser-known facts about the Christmas film that has been the essence of holiday cheer since it was first released.
The Film Is Based On a Short Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is actually based on the short story "Christmas 59," written by John Hughes for National Lampoon Magazine in December 1980. "Christmas 59" was a follow up to the short story "Vacation 58," which was made into the original Vacation movie in 1983.
The film pays tribute to Hughes' original short story when Clark is in the attic pulling out old family Christmas films to watch. During the process, he reveals one that is titled "X-Mas '59." This definitely wasn't a coincidence either.
Hughes Didn't Like The Idea of Vacation Sequels
Although many of Hughes' films have had sequels, he was never excited about any of them. In an interview with William Ham, he said, "The only sequels I was involved in were under duress." Even though he was a writer on European Vacation, he claims that it was only because he had created the characters.
When the studio was begging him about another Vacation movie, he said that he went along with it because he had written a short story that would work for it already. As the Vacation films started to deteriorate in quality, he tried to distance himself from them as much as possible.
