Griswold Family Christmas: One Last Vacation – A Holiday Return with the Original Cast

More than 40 years after their first disastrous road trip in National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), the Griswolds are packing up the station wagon one last time. This time, it’s for a chaotic, heartfelt, and utterly Griswold-style holiday reunion in Griswold Family Christmas: One Last Vacation — a fictional Christmas film that brings back the original cast for one final yuletide hurrah.

Starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold, the film imagines a multi-generational Christmas gathering that reminds audiences why the holidays — and family — can be both magical and maddening.

Clark Griswold is retired now. He’s traded in his dreams of the perfect Christmas lights for quiet mornings in the suburbs and the occasional fight with the inflatable snowman next door. Ellen, ever patient, ever smiling, has taken up yoga and become a wine enthusiast (“for health, not stress,” she insists). Life has slowed down—until the kids announce they’re all coming home for the holidays.

Clark Jr. (Rusty), now a stressed-out dad himself, decides to bring his family to Grandpa’s for Christmas, hoping for some nostalgia-fueled peace. Audrey, successful and jaded from the city, shows up with a new boyfriend who’s more interested in NFTs than family dinners. And Cousin Eddie? Of course he shows up — uninvited — with a “mobile home 2.0” powered by raccoon grease and conspiracy theories.

Soon, the Griswold house is full again — of burnt turkeys, broken ornaments, sarcastic teenagers, Ellen’s passive-aggressive wine-fueled wisdom, and Clark’s unrelenting attempts to make this “the perfect final Christmas.”

Then it starts to snow.

The return of Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold feels like slipping on a pair of fuzzy, slightly singed slippers. He’s older, slower, but no less accident-prone. Whether he’s climbing the roof to hang lights or trying to deep-fry a turkey with a leaf blower, Chase proves that physical comedy never ages — it just gets creakier.

Beverly D’Angelo’s Ellen is, once again, the secret weapon of the Griswold dynamic. Her dry wit and unshakeable calm provide the emotional core, reminding Clark (and the audience) that behind every holiday meltdown is someone holding the family together.

Their chemistry remains sharp, affectionate, and hilariously exasperated — the kind of long-married couple who can argue about Christmas sweaters one second and dance to Bing Crosby the next.

This fictional sequel also introduces a fresh generation of Griswold chaos:

• Rusty, now played by a middle-aged Ed Helms (continuing his Vacation reboot role), is a corporate drone trying to survive fatherhood. His attempts to "parent better than Dad" fall apart quickly.

• Audrey, played by Christina Applegate, is a fashion executive who hasn’t spoken to Rusty in years. Her reluctant softening throughout the film gives the Griswolds their emotional arc.

• The Grandkids range from social-media-obsessed teens to a seven-year-old who believes Santa is a government spy. They’re modern, skeptical, and full of attitude — but the Griswold spirit infects them by Christmas Eve.

The script balances nostalgic callbacks (yes, there’s a squirrel in the tree again) with fresh generational clashes — TikTok vs. VHS, Amazon vs. wrapping paper, Silent Night vs. EDM remixes.

Like any proper Vacation movie, the heart of the film lies in its over-the-top disasters. A few standout sequences include:

• Clark accidentally rerouting the neighborhood power grid during a “surprise light show” that short-circuits Alexa in five houses.

• Cousin Eddie unleashing a pack of “rescue goats” in the basement, believing they help with mold.

• Ellen’s homemade mulled wine combusting after being left on the electric fireplace.

Yet between the exploding gingerbread houses and failed snowman contests, there are genuine moments of warmth — quiet scenes around the fire, old family movies played on VHS, and Clark finally realizing that the best Christmas isn’t perfect — it’s shared.

Griswold Family Christmas: One Last Vacation isn’t just a slapstick sequel — it’s a reflection on aging, family, and how tradition evolves. The film plays with nostalgia in meaningful ways:

• Clark visits Wally World, now a virtual reality amusement park, and finds an old animatronic still humming “Holiday Road.”

• A letter from Clark’s father (played in memory by the late John Randolph) brings him to tears during a scene where he finally sits still long enough to appreciate what he’s built: a messy, loud, loving family.

The film ends not with a bang, but a snow-covered rooftop where Clark and Ellen watch their grandkids build a crooked snowman. No lights, no fireworks — just togetherness.

While purely fictional, Griswold Family Christmas: One Last Vacation would be a dream sendoff for the original Vacation cast — a comedy that blends laugh-out-loud moments with genuine affection for the characters we’ve grown up with. It reminds us that while the world changes, some things — like tangled Christmas lights, burnt ham, and family — are eternal.