Griswold House from 'Christmas Vacation' movie now aglow in Wadsworth

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• The film’s producer made a hidden cameo.
• A list of NJ malls where you can get photos with Santa for the 2022 holiday season
• And a word on cousin Eddie’s RV
• KUSA would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.
• Trending Nationally
• Jeff Horton was ordered to take down his decoration addition after the holidays
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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.

The film’s producer made a hidden cameo.

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.

A list of NJ malls where you can get photos with Santa for the 2022 holiday season

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.

And a word on cousin Eddie’s RV

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.

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Osterland said his family has adapted as the popularity of the Griswold House display has grown. But that doesn’t bother Osterland, because the visitors help raise funds for cystic fibrosis research. He was diagnosed with the genetic disease when he was 6 and said advances have helped him immensely. The display includes spots to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides program. GoBreck said local crew was also involved in filming and a producer did everything they could to keep money in town.

Cousin Eddie is based on a real guy.

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.

Squirrels: I always thought that one part of Christmas Vacation was funny. Until it happened to me. - Slate

Squirrels: I always thought that one part of Christmas Vacation was funny. Until it happened to me..

Posted: Wed, 27 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

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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.

Jeff Horton was ordered to take down his decoration addition after the holidays

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.

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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.

After a disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, during which Aunt Bethany's cat is electrocuted and Uncle Lewis accidentally burns down the Christmas tree while lighting his cigar, a courier delivers an envelope. Instead of the bonus Clark expects, it is a membership in a jelly club. He snaps and angrily wishes for Frank to be delivered to the house so he can insult him to his face.

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).

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.

'Griswolds' bring Christmas vacation to downtown Wetumpka News thewetumpkaherald.com - Wetumpka Herald

'Griswolds' bring Christmas vacation to downtown Wetumpka News thewetumpkaherald.com.

Posted: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

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.

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.

Those references include (but are not limited to) the house covered in lights, Clark Griswold hanging from the roof, the Christmas tree bursting through the ceiling and of course the fan-favorite character Cousin Eddie, bathrobe and all. That scene is the inspiration for the Estes Avenue home’s display, including lining the home’s front facade in bright Christmas lights, home owner Kyle Hillman said. During the official lighting ceremony, which takes place every year on the day after Thanksgiving, Osterland told visitors about the deeper purpose behind their annual endeavor. Homeowner Greg Osterland sought to recreate the iconic Griswold house from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” since childhood. The tradition of watching the movie with his family every Christmas Eve fueled his passion and made him an expert in exterior illumination. It went on to gross a total of $71,319,546 in the United States while showing in movie theaters.[25] It was the highest-grossing film in the series, until the release of Vacation in 2015.