Easy Cheer

Ah, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It teaches us two very important lessons:

LESSON 1 - Plot is not a necessary element to Christmas comedies. Sure, there are great examples of exciting, hilarious Yuletide favorites. Home Alone, for example. Or I’m a fan of the recent Violent Night. (Highly recommend if you haven’t watched it. It brings wild, over-the-top action movie set pieces to the party while possessing the nostalgic magic of a movie from the 80s or 90s.) But you don’t need action. You can also just assemble a group of eccentric weirdos on screen, lead them through a series of ludicrous situations, and have yourself a classic of the genre.

LESSON 2 - Elaborately decorating your house for Christmas is difficult, yet entirely worthwhile and cool!

But actually, let’s unpack that second one.

Sure, Clark, at long last, succeeds in decorating his house. And fine, the result earns admiration from his friends and family. But, was it actually worth it? Especially considering that, in real life, Clark would’ve sustained multiple grievous injuries in the process.

Not to mention, the movie doesn’t show the aftermath: when he has to take down all that stuff and find a place to store it. Those old-school bulky plastic pieces are rad as hell in your yard in December! From January to November, though? Very not rad. After all, it’s not like you can fold them and stuff them in the corner of your basement at season’s end.

But you know what doesn’t take much effort to set up, and can be folded and stuffed in a corner of your basement?

Inflatables!

Like this one! (And yes, to be clear, that’s the correct way to write that: this is one inflatable that includes three attached Christmas trees.) It blows up in just 90 seconds and features integrated LEDs so that it’ll look fun and festive all day and all night. Then, when the holidays are over, you don’t have to rent a storage unit to stash them.

(And, let’s be real, if they made Christmas Vacation in 2024, Clark Griswald would have, like, 50 of these things.)

So buy one, and get a Christmas decoration that’s big and also totally easy!