30 Feminist Christmas Movies, Ranked

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Image via Warner Bros.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The third installment of the Vacation series follows the Griswold family as they attempt to have a “good, old-fashioned family Christmas.” Clark Griswold is actually doing well, despite his taking the family for an ill-fated tree-hunting trip and causing a citywide power shortage with his Christmas lights. But when his wife Ellen’s cousin and her husband and kids show up unexpectedly, things begin to get complicated. When Clark also discovers that the Christmas bonus he’s been promised has been scrapped, he has to figure out a way to shake the bah-humbugs and have a merry Christmas after all.

The Good

• There is a brief Bechdel test pass! Ellen and her daughter Audrey discuss how having extra people at their Christmas celebration is ruining Audrey’s life. Many of those guests are men but still – hooray for that!

The Bad

• Clark Griswold is a pretty shining paragon of toxic masculinity in all these movies. One small example is that he insists on picking out a gigantic tree, which he then can’t cut down because he forgot the tools, but refuses to leave because of pride.
• Clark also pretty much holds a contest with the entire neighborhood by insisting on decorating with 25,000 Christmas lights, which cause a power outage.
• Clark also explodes into rage when he discovers he isn’t receiving a Christmas bonus this year. But he whines about it enough and ends up getting it anyway.

The Ugly

• None of the women in the movie have anything to do with the plot, the machinations of the story, or the advancement of their own goals. It’s all set dressing for Clark Griswold’s expressions of masculine pride. Sorry Chevy Chase; I can’t get behind that.