Where is the Griswold house from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?

Table Of Content

• Here's where they filmed 'Christmas Vacation' scenes in Colorado
• Roger Ebert did not love the film.
• Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Juliette Lewis reunited In 2012.
• The Griswold House in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
• This ‘Christmas Vacation’ House Even Has Clark Griswold Hanging From The Roof

While the display brings cheer to fans of the holiday flick, it also helps spread cheer by raising donations for Great Strides, a national fundraising event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A speaker installed in the front yard is activated by motion sensor when people walk by. There is also a display showing an FM frequency that drivers can tune into to listen to the audio of the scenes being projected. WEST RIDGE — A home in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood is paying homage to a Christmas movie classic with a massive lights display. The display comes complete with 25,000 lights adorning the outside of the house, the “Family Truckster” topped with the Griswold’s Christmas tree and cousin Eddie, standing outside his RV. The Griswold house is actually an exterior set on “Blondie Street” on a Warner Brothers back lot in Burbank, CA, as is Todd and Margo’s house (the neighbors next door).

Here's where they filmed 'Christmas Vacation' scenes in Colorado

In 2020, they got so many donations that the RV couldn't even fit them all. It feels like this is the big moment we've all been waiting for here in South Jersey this holiday season. You don’t see much of actress Ellen Hamilton Latzen these days; she’s mostly remembered for her role in Fatal Attraction and her signature performance as Eddie’s daughter in Christmas Vacation. In a chat with Bill Bradley of HuffPost, she spoke fondly of Christmas Vacation’s family dinner scene.

Roger Ebert did not love the film.

And of course, the 25,000 Christmas lights on the exterior of the house made the family home that much more memorable. "It's really light. It's all studded together and I used metal connectors," Norton. The second story was something I envisioned as a 30 day add on. Each year, Christmas Vacation superfan Greg Osterland and his family adorn their Wadsworth, Ohio, residence with an exact duplicate of Clark’s over-the-top lighting arrangement. (And in 2019, they added a replica of Cousin Eddie’s banged-up RV.) Visitors are encouraged to make donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides. Sure they’re wrapped differently, but size- and shape-wise, the gifts are identical.

Couple who recreated Griswold Christmas house at 173 Duane Lane in Wadsworth, Ohio raises money for cystic fibrosis research - WPVI-TV

Couple who recreated Griswold Christmas house at 173 Duane Lane in Wadsworth, Ohio raises money for cystic fibrosis research.

Posted: Mon, 25 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Juliette Lewis reunited In 2012.

The Griswolds also get a surprise visit from Cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her moocher husband, Eddie, played by Randy Quaid. While the story takes place in Chicago amid the snow and chill, the Griswold house is actually located in Los Angeles and is part of the Warner Brothers studio. As it turns out, Clark’s impressive light display isn’t the only magical component of the Griswold family house.

Fans of the movie who don’t want to drape their homes in Christmas lights, but still want to add some holiday movie magic can turn to Department 56’s beautiful Christmas Vacation Village collection. However, after the holidays the city orders that the second story must come down. Some municipalities have promoted displays with contests, calling on residents to nominate their favorites.

Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The home had Clark's station wagon, thousands of twinkling lights just like Clark hung on his own home, and even came with cousin Eddie and his RV. The display grew so much that the Harbaugh family decided to launch a toy drive to go along with their decorations in an effort to give back to needy kids at Christmas. Every year, they'd fill cousin Eddie's RV up with toy donations.

Here are some things you might not know about everyone’s favorite Christmas comedy. In 2003, NBC aired a spin-off called National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2 which featured Cousin Eddie's family on a Christmas vacation in the South Pacific. Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, and Dana Barron reprise their roles from the previous Vacation films alongside series newcomers Jake Thomas, Edward Asner, Sung Hi Lee, and Fred Willard. Principal photography began on March 27, 1989, in Summit County, Colorado,[8] with footage shot in Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Frisco.[9] From there the production moved to Warner Bros. Ranch Facilities in Burbank, California, where the set of the Griswold family's house and street is located.[10] Filming wrapped on June 30, 1989.

Filming took place in Summit County, Colorado, Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Frisco as well as Burbank, California between March and June 1989. The house has been altered a lot to serve other movies, especially the interiors, which are also only a set, not a real house. With much of the movie taking place in the property, we got to see many of the rooms throughout the house.

Though the movie is a popular holiday film in the UK, it was never actually shown in theaters there. “I hadn’t seen the first two [Vacation movies], and so I wasn’t really influenced by anything other than the fact that it was a big—at the time—their big Christmas movie, and comedy,” Chechik told Den of Geek. One of the most popular displays is the Wadsworth Griswold House, an annual achievement that features 25,000 lights, characters from the movie “National Lampoon Christmas Vacation” and Cousin Eddie’s RV.

Though Johnny Galecki wasn’t there, two previous Rustys—Anthony Michael Hall and Jason Lively—were. The 1989 movie classic "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" — which tells the story of Clark Griswold trying to put on the perfect Christmas for his family — filmed many of its scenes in Colorado. The house in the 2200 block of West Estes Avenue is decked out in honor of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” the beloved 1989 movie set in the Chicago area. The movie includes a famous scene where Clark Griswold encounters struggles in his effort to put lights on his house, resulting in a truly over-the-top Christmas lights display that briefly browns out the neighborhood until backup power is added. The house, located about an hour and 45 minutes from Columbus, is illuminated every night through the holiday season from 5 p.m.

A cover of the song appears on the 2007 Disney Channel Holiday album. The attraction this year is themed “At the Movies” and features a 30-minute loop starting at 6 p.m. Besides the Griswold house, there are numerous displays of note throughout the Akron area. “We have it set up so if you just want to drive and see it you don’t have to get out of your car,” he said.

Thankfully some of these rooms still exist in some form or other today. Others having been changed many times over the years and are unrecognizable. Blondie Street as it looks today, the house in the middle was used in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, while the house to the right was the residence of Robert Murtaugh (Danny Glover) in Lethal Weapon. On the opposite side of the road is a house that featured in Small Soldiers. There are a dozen or so houses on this ‘fake’ street in all, as well as a church and some NY style townhouses. In the movie, the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation house is located in a snowy Chicago suburb, however, the true location of the property is on the backlot of the Warner Bros.

Then again, it might not be too far off the mark, considering suburban family dysfunction is kind of the running theme there (albeit it’s played up more for laughs than surrealist horror in this flick). Turns out Aunt Bethany isn’t the only voice actress in the family. Miriam Flynn, who played Eddie’s adoring wife in four Vacation pictures, voiced Taz’s mother on the animated Warner Bros. series Taz-Mania. She’s also lent her vocal talents to The Land Before Time franchise and voiced Maa, the elderly sheep in Babe.