How Much It’d Cost to Repair the House Damage in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”

Written by

Jessica Wang
Jessica Wang
Jessica is a writer and former weekend editor at Apartment Therapy. Her work also appears in Bustle, Nylon, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, and more. She lives in Southern California with her dog.
updated Dec 18, 2024
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Clark Griswold can’t catch a break in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The 1989 holiday film stars Chevy Chase as the out-of-luck patriarch trying to plan the perfect Christmas for his family. Things go awry when relatives show up unannounced at the Griswold house and holiday bonuses don’t come through, resulting in hijinks and plenty of property damage along the way. So much property damage! 

Renovation experts at Power Home Remodeling assessed just how much it would cost to repair the house damage today — and let’s just say it would require a lot more holiday bonuses on Clark’s part. 

Credit: Design: Apartment Therapy

Power Home Remodeling’s Michael DiMartino, senior vice president of project services, and Eamon Lynch, director of warranty services, examined the damage done to the windows, circuitry, gutter, and more throughout the course of the film to determine estimates. 

What’s clear is that, given how much home repair projects cost right now, even in comparison to the last four years, Griswold is in for a lot of pain. 

“Inflation has impacted consumerism across the board, and we’ve seen it throughout the home remodeling industry in the form of raised material prices, labor shortages, and delayed supply chain. The cost of remodeling your home will look a bit different these days as opposed to what it might have cost a homeowner for the same projects back in 2020. The industry is seeing roughly 10 to 30% increases industrywide since 2020,” DiMartino said. 

The windows alone — damaged from the Christmas tree and that SWAT team invasion — would cost an estimated $1,200 per window, equaling a whopping $12,000, since there are about 10 windows. 

The blown circuit, on the other hand, would cost an estimated $3,650 after Clark overloaded his outlet with various extension cords for Christmas lights, resulting in a power outage. 

The roof damage that Griswold incurred by stapling the Christmas lights through the shingles would have cost about $27,300 in today’s terms.

Then there’s the gutter damage. When the Griswold patriarch fell off the roof while holiday decorating, he managed to grab onto the gutter to save himself — but not so much his wallet. The estimated cost to repair the gutter would be about $4,900, based on a ~2,000-square-foot roof and quality of product, and this doesn’t even include labor costs. 

So far, the grand total is at $47,850. This doesn’t even take into account the ceiling repair after Clark fell through the attic (an estimated $700) and the front door and interior door replacement after SWAT broke through (about $5,320) — or the cost to replace the door knocker ($65).

There’s also the gable vent repairs ($105), the pull-down attic stairs ($350), the newel post replacement ($160), and the living room floor repair — which would run Griswold $65 per section and $7,020 total.

With every single cost accounted for, the estimated grand total would be over $61,570. It’s a lot, and all the Jelly of the Month Club memberships in the world wouldn’t begin to scratch the surface. 

Scroll through the infographic above for a full breakdown of the cost repair. Spoiler alert: It’s stressful.