“An Honest Look At The Celebration of America’s Christless Christmas”
By Richard Allen – December 23, 2024
At this season of “good cheer,” I certainly don’t want to sound like a Scrooge, seeking to spoil or dampen the happiness and joy of others as they celebrate the Christmas Season. So, let me state from the start that this 1989 Movie, “Christmas Vacation” has become a staple of Christmas celebrations for many modern American households. From a purely cinematic perspective, it is entertaining and funny. This movie, starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, a mid-level manager in Corporate America, was longing to “rekindle some of the magic he fondly remembers from Christmas past.” As the family gathers at hid suburban Chicago home, the misadventures begin. Clark, obsessed with making his house a “showcase of exterior illumination,” spends hours decorating his entire two-story home with Christmas Lights, including the roof. While both his parents and his in-laws wait to see the festive sight of twinkling lights, Clark plans and dreams about an “in-ground swimming pool.” This he plans to build in his backyard with the annual Christmas Bonus, which for some reason has not arrived as yet.
My title for this Blog is a play on words using the title for another Christmas movie from 2017 entitled: “The Man Who Invented Christmas.” This movie is a wonderful story about Charles Dickens and his influence on our present-day traditions and practice of Christmas. At some point in the future, I may blog on this Dickens movie. I believe that historically Charles Dickens’ writings about Victorian England’s celebration of Christmas actually defined how we feel about Christmas in the West. But sadly, Dickens also planted the seeds of the Christless Secular Christmas that we now have harvested. Showing kindness and mercy to the poor and downtrodden is an important component of Christian behavior, but it’s not the Gospel. The message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection alone will save men and women from sin! It’s our present-day Christmas, the “Christless Christmas,” that Clark Griswold’s “Christmas Vacation” reflects. “Christmas Vacation” mirrors the “Christless Christmas” into which our American culture has descended. I should also say that I don’t really think that Clark Griswold was the man who “Changed Christmas.” No, but Clark Griswold’s character in “Christmas Vacation” reflects “what Christmas here in the United States has become.” “Christmas Vacation” reveals the struggle that Clark had, trying to “once again capture the magic he once remembered at Christmas.”
I’m not going to enter the debate on Christmas as a Christian Holiday, I’ll leave that to others. For myself as a believer in Jesus Christ, Christmas holds a special meaning. It’s a celebration of the Advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! In years past, the celebration of Christmas in America was a joyous time to remember God’s greatest gift to mankind, His Son! Born to live a holy life and die an atoning death on Calvary’s Cross – Jesus’ birth gives wings to the season. Even “Christmas Vacation” (somewhat mockingly) has Clark singing the Christmas Carol “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!” On a deeper level, I think Clark is much like the Ebenezer Scrooge character in Dickens’ Novel – a man haunted by the “ghosts of Christmas past.” Besides the usual “slapstick comedy” and “dysfunctional family” that is common in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series, Clark is struggling to find something that he lost – the joy of the holiday or the spirit of the season he has stored fondly in his memories. The rest of the cast seems focused on participating in Clark’s bringing to life a family celebration. Clark is trying to re-create the “warm glow” of his Christmas memories. Whether real or imagined, he’s longing for something more!
There are several very tender moments in the movie “Christmas Vacation,” that are worth mentioning. Clark’s burning desire is to once again experience the magic of Christmas he enjoyed as a boy. To do this, he gathers his family and extended family, including his mom and dad and his wife’s parents. He even has his elderly Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis join in the festivities. As the movie progresses, cousin Eddie and his wife Catherine limp into Chicago with a rust-bucket recreational vehicle, possibly the most broken-down RV ever used as a movie prop. Of course, cousin Eddie is unemployed and has no money for food, gas or Christmas presents for their son and daughter. Clark puts up with all the mishaps and guests, all in an effort to enjoy the spirit of the season. Quite possibly the most touching scene in the whole film is when Clark gets stuck in the attic while the whole family is out shopping. Sitting in his pajamas with an old coat and hat found in storage, he watches old family movies boxed up with the projector in the attic. While watching these old movies, it’s clear that Clark Griswold is looking for something in Christmases past that he now wants to experience again.
But while there are touching and sentimental moments, the tenure of the whole movie is godless men and women desperately seeking to experience pleasure from a ‘cultural holiday’ devoid of any transcendent meaning. Christmas to the Griswolds is just about food, presents, possessions and a mythical Santa Claus, who, Clark announces at a dinner table full of guests: “Was spotted by an Airline Pilot.” Cousin Eddie (played by Randy Quaid) is so naïve that he actually thinks Clark is telling the truth, asking: “Are you serious Clark?” No doubt, the most irreligious and revealing scene was when Clark, seeking to kindle some greater significance to the season, asks 80-year-old aunt Bethany, hard of hearing and a bit senile, to say grace. Not understanding, Uncle Lewis proclaims forcefully in her face: “They want you to say the blessing” (i.e. pray before the Christmas feast). When Aunt Bethany finally understands the request, she bows her head, prompting everyone to follow suit and says: “I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America.” As she continues the Pledge of Allegiance, the whole family joins in, finishing with hearty “Amens” from all!
Again, I say this not to be a spoil-sport or make fun of those who are aged, but for me this is the climax of the movie’s real message: “Christmas is about anything and everything to do with our mundane lives, but nothing to do with Jesus or His birth!” This alone reveals our attitude toward God since Man’s Fall: We want His blessings and creation without Him! Quite possibly the most sacrilegious moment of “Christmas Vacation” is Clark’s personal mission to find the faulty electrical connection, and get his excessive Christmas lights to finally light. It’s quite comical, as Clark checks and re-checks all the connections, only to be stymied again and again – unable to get the lights on. Then in one climactic scene, Clark tries one final time to plug in a heavy-duty extension cord in the front yard – at the same moment his wife flips a switch in the garage, and Voilà – the Lights ignite into radiant brilliance! The musical soundtrack bursts into the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Handel’s Messiah! While the film creates a cinematic crescendo, nothing about decorating a suburban home with thousands of gaudy Christmas Lights compares to images of Handel’s Messiah extoling the power, glory and majesty of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the wedding feast of the Lamb as depicted in the Book of Revelation:
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns” (Revelation 19:6).
“And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written: ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS’ ” (Revelation 19:16).
We certainly live in a ‘time of famine,’ not of bread or wine, but of hearing and honoring the God of Heaven and His Word. Modern man, in supposedly Christian America, no longer has any respect or reverence for God, the Maker and Sustainer of all Life! It’s not only that Clark Griswold reflects the sorry state into which Americans have descended, it’s that we are neither embarrassed nor fearful of speaking and acting so glibly about eternal matters. It can truly be said of our current American attitudes and behavior:
“There is no fear of God before our eyes!” (Romans 3:18).
In spite of itself, “Christmas Vacation” portrays a man searching – searching for that something he has longed for in Christmas since he was a boy. Attempting to re-create family memories helped Clark Griswold believe that “he had re-discovered what was missing.” But in truth – Clark’s searching highlights two important points: 1.) There is a hunger and void that men have, seeking a deeper meaning in the Christmas Season. 2.) Regardless of man’s attempts to fill that void with all of life’s “superficial and outward trappings,” the void is still there. There is something eternal, holy and good – that our “hollow, joyless display of gifts, glitter and extravagance” reveals, is still missing: “The Joy of Forgiveness and Peace with God that only a Relationship with Christ as Lord and Savior can provide! My prayer for all my readers at this Season of Advent is, that you will find the true meaning of Christmas! And not just by celebrating with our earthly families, but by worshiping with our Church family as well. This is the Season to rejoice with Heaven and Earth – the babe born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago – to offer Himself as a Perfect Sacrifice! He alone can restore us to a right relationship with God our Father! Jesus is the only Man who can change Christmas into something holy, wonderful and blessed for each of us!
Soli Deo Gloria!