Heck yeah, Jason Orsini, of Smithtown, New York. Not only does my birthplace have Melissa Joan Hart to its credit, but it also has a near-perfect replica of the Griswold house from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, one of the most iconic Christmas movies in the Christmas movie canon.
A New York House Went Full ‘Christmas Vacation’ With Its Light Display
Per NBC 4 New York, there are more than 20 mannequins dressed up as characters reenacting famous scenes from the movie. That includes Cousin Eddie standing in the street, robed and beer in hand, to Clark Griswold dangling from the gutters after slipping off the roof.
It took Orsini about two months to put it all together. That’s vastly longer than Clark Griswold, who seemed to throw it together in just a few days in the movie. But Orsini is a real person who lives in reality, so it’s impressive that anybody could be so thorough as to string up 25,000 white lights across the house, the figure given by Clark Griswold in the movie and replicated there.
There are even the Griswold vehicles, including their wood-paneled family station wagon with a giant tree on the roof and Cousin Eddie’s beat-up RV.
“Orsini’s love for the movie began in the early 1990s after he was punished by his father,” reported Mike Gavin for NBC 4 New York. “Confined to his bedroom with a television and VCR but no cable, he began watching a VHS tape of “Christmas Vacation.”
“‘I kept watching the movie over and over again on repeat,’ Orsini said. ‘I loved it so much that I always wanted that family atmosphere for Christmas every year, and I always vowed that I would have it when I got older. And now, I’m doing it.’”
As a fellow diehard superfan of the movie—I watch it religiously every year, one of the three requirements of Christmas for me—I’d say he nailed it. For more photographs and lore about Orsini’s home, head over to Gavin’s story on NBC 4 New York.
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