Juliette Lewis ‘Didn’t Know’ Her Holiday Classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation Would Become So ‘Special’

Over three decades since National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation premiered, Juliette Lewis says she never imagined the 1989 comedy would become a holiday classic.

In September, Lewis took part in the “Fabulous Ladies of the ’90s” panel moderated by PEOPLE’s Dory Jackson at 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Fla., alongside Carmen Electra, Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel Hauser. When asked about the roles that resonate with her most, Lewis brought up Christmas Vacation.

“I was very young,” said Lewis, who played the oldest Griswold sibling Audrey in the film. “but I see all these people, these kids and families, and it’s so touching because you can’t predict that.”

Lewis noted that she was just 15 years old when she took over the role previously played by Dana Barron in the 1983 film Vacation and by Dana Hill in the 1985 take European Vacation. “I didn’t know that’s a movie that’s going to play every year,” she said. “It’s very special.”

In Christmas Vacation, Lewis was part of a star-studded ensemble cast that included Vacation franchise alums Chevy Chase as bumbling dad Clark Griswold, Beverly D’Angelo as long-suffering mom Ellen Griswold and Randy Quaid as bonkers cousin Eddie. Like Lewis, future Rosanne and The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki took over the role of kid brother Rusty (played by Anthony Michael Hall and Jason Lively in the previous two films), while greats like Doris Roberts and Diane Ladd were among the actors rounding out the extended Griswold clan, with Julia Louis Dreyfus appearing as the family’s up-tight neighbor.

“Chevy Chase was very kind to me on that movie,” Lewis told the 90s Con crowd of the SNL alum.

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Released on Dec. 1, 1989, the film just marked its 35th anniversary. Over the years, its hilariously relatable depiction of Yuletide chaos has made Christmas Vacation a beloved holiday staple. Last year, Chase, D’Angelo, Quaid and Miriam Flynn, who played Eddie’s wife Catherine, reunited at Christmas Con 2023 in Edison, N.J.

In 1997, director Stephen Kessler followed up Christmas Vacation with a long-awaited fourth entry in the Vacation franchise, Vegas Vacation. While Chase, D’Angelo, Quaid and Flynn all reprised their roles, both Lewis and Galecki’s characters were once again recast. But in 2012, Lewis, Hall, Lively and Barron all appeared alongside Chase and D’Angelo in an Old Navy holiday commercial poking fun at the revolving Griswold kids.