Christmas Vacation Themed Dinner

This week’s themed dinner was inspired by the classic holiday comedy, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

In Christmas Vacation, family man Clark Griswold strives to host the perfect “old-fashioned Christmas” for his family and extended relatives.  But his well-intentioned plans go awry, and mayhem ensues.

This film is full of hilarious scenes and quotable moments, not to mention some great food references.  So, this year, I decided to join in on the “old-fashioned Christmas” fun and have a Christmas Vacation themed dinner!

Creating our Christmas Vacation themed dinner menu was a lot of fun.  I took inspiration from Clark’s colorful family members as well as several hilarious food references in the film.

I designed special food labels for our Christmas Vacation themed dinner.  If you’d like to download and print these labels, click the link below!

*This post contains affiliate links.  This means, if you click a link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you!

“I’m Freezing My Pizza Baguettes Off!”

While attempting to achieve “perfect Christmas” status, Clark endeavored to hang thousands of Christmas lights from his house.  Once the work was finished, he excitedly gathered his family outside to witness the grand lighting. 

Unfortunately (in true Clark Griswold fashion) nothing went right.  As Clark troubleshoots, we get this classic quote from his father-in-law, Art – “You want to hurry this up, Clark?  I’m freezing my baguettes off!”

There you have it – baguettes!  I knew it would be easy to incorporate this popular French bread in our Christmas Vacation themed dinner.  So, I decided to make pizza baguettes.

I sliced the baguettes in half lengthwise and loaded them up with my Great-Grandma’s Marinara Sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni.  After 15min in the oven at 400 degrees, we had our pizza baguettes!

I’ve never used baguettes to make pizza before, but this was so easy to do!  I will definitely use this simple shortcut again in the future.  

Uncle Lewis’s Stogies

The next dish on our Christmas Vacation themed dinner menu was inspired by Clark’s cantankerous uncle, Lewis. 

Uncle Lewis is frequently seen toting a cigar, and those stogies cause plenty of mayhem in the film.  So, I knew I had to reference them somehow on our menu.

I searched the internet for a dish that resembled Uncle Lewis’s stogies, and I stumbled upon a recipe for Turkish Sigara Borek by Food and Wine.  Also known as “cheese cigars” this dish is made with feta and fresh herbs rolled up in layers of phyllo dough.

I love trying recipes from other cultures, so I was excited to give these a whirl! 

Rolling the cheese cigars was a labor of love.  But they looked perfect as our “stogies”, and they were very tasty!

Aunt Bethany’s Jell-O Mold

One of the most famous food references in the film is Aunt Bethany’s Jell-O mold. 

Aunt Bethany gets a little confused, so her Jell-O mold was a tad unconventional with the addition of cat food and a potato chip garnish.

I decided to make a lime Jell-O just like Aunt Bethany with a mold I purchased from Amazon HERE.

Rather than put actual cat food in our Jell-O, I simply topped it off with cereal pieces that resembled cat food.  The kids got a kick out of it!

As an added tribute to Aunt Bethany, we had to incorporate her poor, electrocuted kitty into our Christmas décor.  I made our fried cat by sewing together black and white fur fabric then wrapping it in Christmas lights.

Our cat was concerned about him at first…

But then they became buddies.

Catherine’s Turkey Jerky

Christmas Eve dinner was a picture-perfect scene at the Griswold house.  But right as Clark began carving the turkey, the whole thing imploded into a dried out, dusty mess.

As a nod to Catherine’s burnt turkey, I decided to serve some turkey jerky for our Christmas Vacation themed dinner. 

However, to call the burnt turkey in Christmas Vacation “turkey jerky” would be doing it a favor.  That poor bird was inedible!

Our turkey jerky, on the other hand, was teriyaki flavored and delicious!

Jelly of the Month Club Grape Jelly Meatballs

All of Clark’s anguishes culminated in one final moment in the film – when he finally received his Christmas bonus from work.  Expecting his usual yearly cash bonus, Clark was dismayed to have instead received a year membership for the Jelly of the Month Club.

So, to incorporate jelly in our Christmas Vacation themed dinner, I made Grape Jelly Meatballs with a recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen.    

This recipe couldn’t be any easier.  Simply combine frozen meatballs, grape jelly, and barbecue sauce in the crockpot and heat through.  They were a hit with the family!

I also created a Jelly of the Month Club label for our Christmas Vacation décor.  You can download a printable version of the label by clicking the link below!

“Lotta Sap” Christmas Tree Cookies

For dessert, I took inspiration from the humungous Christmas tree Clark cut down in the wilderness and brought home. 

As a nod to Clark’s “lotta sap” comment, I decided to make Maple Sugar Cookies using a recipe from Stress Baking.  

The cookies had a wonderful, subtle maple flavor that the family really enjoyed!

Clark’s Eggnog

Clark keeps the eggnog flowing at his house during the holidays, and one of the things I love the most is the family’s moose head mugs.  National Lampoon fans will instantly recognize that moose as Marty Moose from the original National Lampoon’s Vacation film.

So, of course, we had to have eggnog for our Christmas Vacation themed dinner!  I’ve made my own eggnog in the past and did not enjoy it.  So, for our Christmas Vacation themed dinner I simply bought a carton from the grocery store, and it was much better!

I would feel like a fraud if we didn’t also have the moose head mug to drink our eggnog from.  So, I tracked some down on Amazon and ordered my own.  You can find them HERE!

Call me crazy, but drinking our eggnog from the moose mug made the experience that much better.  It was like being part of the zany Griswold family, whether we wanted to be or not!

Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.  No, no.  We’re all in this together.”

I hope you enjoyed our Christmas Vacation themed dinner!  We had a lot of fun getting creative with this one.

Have an idea for our next holiday themed dinner?  Let us know in the comments!

Looking for other Christmas themed dinners?  Check out our Rudolph Themed Dinner and our Nightmare Before Christmas Themed Dinner!

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