Tis the season to be merry! And whether or not your name is actually Mary, you probably know by now that my favorite Christmas movie from the '80s (or any era) is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. If you are also a big fan and try to rediscover it in new ways each year like me, you should enjoy this series of videos I've compiled that may shed some new exterior illumination on your ears!
The "Christmas Vacation" theme by Mavis Staples is such a big part of each viewing of the film every year for me. Yes, it mentions the title of the movie and is associated with that great animated opening sequence, but it is very unique in that you don't hear it played much on radio stations or even see it included on streaming playlists. To hear the "Christmas Vacation" theme, you pretty much have to watch the movie which couples with the fact that the soundtrack has never been widely released.
What makes the song even more unique is that you never hear it covered on pop Christmas albums. It's almost like only die hard fans (not to be confused with Bruce Willis' Christmas movie) seek out the theme each season. You won't find many covers of "Christmas Vacation" on YouTube either but after some legwork, I was able to compile a pretty definitive playlist.
You are going to love these 11 videos of orchestral arrangements, concerts, kids with xylophones, heavy metal, and acoustic performances of "Christmas Vacation." My favorite is definitely the unplugged version (the last video) just because it's hard to imagine the dedication it took to pluck out the main tune plus the vocal and backing vocal tracks on a guitar.
I hope you will enjoy these as much as I have and add to your enjoyment of the holiday season this year!
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