Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo
The Torch is Lit… and It’s About to Burn the House Down
The torch has been passed, and true to the Griswold tradition, it’s about to ignite a suburban catastrophe. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: The Griswold Legacy (2026) brings the chaotic Christmas spirit roaring back to life, centered on the grown-up son, Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms), who is determined to host the ultimate, picture-perfect family gathering in his own modern, manicured home. His goal: to honor his aging, yet perpetually optimistic, parents, Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo).
Driven by the need to outdo his father’s legendary 25,000-light display, Rusty installs a cutting-edge, fully AI-integrated “Smart Christmas” system. This meticulously networked system is designed to manage everything from the temperature-controlled eggnog dispenser to the synchronized, 4K light show. Inevitably, the system goes spectacularly rogue, locking the entire family inside and turning the pristine suburban house into a festive, high-tech fortress of doom.
Old School vs. Smart House
Adding fuel to the inevitable fire is the original architect of Christmas chaos, Clark Griswold Sr. (Chevy Chase). Refusing to sit on the sidelines and watch a computer ruin his favorite holiday, Clark insists on trying to “fix” the system using his own dangerous 1980s wiring techniques and boundless, if misplaced, confidence. His analog solutions clash disastrously with Rusty’s digital infrastructure, creating sparks, minor explosions, and a fluctuating power grid that keeps switching the lighting between blinding brilliance and total darkness.
The chaos is compounded when an unexpected, record-breaking blizzard traps the entire extended family inside. This includes a new, particularly eccentric generation of uninvited cousins—who are inexplicably living out of a souped-up Cybertruck RV parked precariously on the front lawn.
A Beautiful Disaster
The ensuing holiday meltdown features all the hallmark Griswold elements updated for the modern era: exploding vegan turkeys, aggressive synchronized drones dropping dangerously heavy ornaments, a mishap with a virtual reality Santa Claus experience, and an increasingly stressed Ellen Griswold (Beverly D’Angelo) trying to maintain sanity amidst the anarchy.
Amidst the forced proximity and festive failures, the Griswolds share a heartwarming realization that perfection is overrated, and that the only thing that truly matters is enduring the holiday—and the sheer, beautiful disaster of their lineage—together. No matter the decade, the technology, or the scale of the lights, the Griswolds prove that Christmas is always a hilarious, electrical fire waiting to happen.