The holiday season is fast approaching, Clark Griswold awaits his Christmas bonus from work while his family deals with having everyone home for Christmas, even the ones who unexpectedly show up.

Driving for their annual Christmas tree, Clark gets the family station wagon trapped behind the wheels of an eighteen wheeler truck. (Hopes and dreams fade quickly when you’re about to become a pancake.) Using his nifty skills behind the steeling wheel, Clark successfully gets his family out of trouble, finding the Christmas tree lot out of sheer luck.

When you have the unbreakable will of a determined father, your sights are set far beyond those wondering what it is you see. A spectacular tree calls to be cut down. Paul Bunyan himself would be proud of gazing at such a magnificent specimen. Everyone looks on at Clark’s discovery. We hear the chattering of teeth and marvel at Griswold’s stupidity on forgetting to bring an axe to chop it down.

As each door of the Griswold’s advent calender is opened, an obstacle finds it’s way into their lives. From spending multiple hours setting up a dazzling display of 25,000 Italian twinkle lights, which won’t turn on. To getting locked in his cold attic while trying to hide a few Christmas presents. (We do get a beautiful moment of Clark watching some old home movies while wearing woman’s clothing.) Even when the entire family arrives for the holidays, the snoring grandparents alone in the den are loud enough to scare off anyone wishing to watch some television.

When Helen figures out the simple solution for Clark’s malfunctioning lights, a blinding flash of radiance blinds even the neighbors from next door. The power company even has to switch to auxiliary power just to keep the rest of the neighborhood from blackening out. Clark’s old fashioned Christmas receives four new guests and a dog named Snot to an already full house, when Cousin Eddie arrives in his RV. (Recreational Vehicle. I don’t know why I wrote that out for you, you’re smart enough to know what RV stands for)

Suffice to say, Eddie’s children are adorable, one loves to cuss while the other radiates a charmingly stunned look.

The whole picture revolves around Clark waiting for his Christmas bonus to arrive by mail. He has a wonderful surprise planned for the whole family and can’t wait to share his fantastic news.

Crunchy and overcooked, the fearsome turkey puts up a great fight against everyone at the dining table during Christmas eve dinner. The strain of chewing and tasting unknown flavors produces an assortment of sour looks on everyone, especially from Clark. Even when the cat becomes a non-washable carpet stain after chewing the Christmas lights, a new confrontation between human and squirrel may just be the final straw needed to break the camels back.

Whether you laugh out loud or snicker at Clark’s disastrous misfortunes, always try and look at the bright side. His life could always get worse. Clark’s overblown imagination always seems to find a way of humiliating himself in front of his family and relatives. From sledding down a hill faster then the Millennium Falcon as it made it’s Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, (you may need to have a bit of nerd in you to understand that reference) to freaking out over the worst Christmas gift a hard working man shouldn’t receive. This is one Christmas he won’t forget. Sometimes when you speak from the heart the one person you thought wasn’t listening turns out to be the one who gives the greatest gift of all.