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The Griswolds are still celebrating the hap-hap-happiest of Christmases. 

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” continues to shine as bright as 25,000 Italian Twinkle Lights.

In 2024, you can buy tickets to a live conversation with star Chevy Chase, decorate your tree with Hallmark’s latest Keepsake ornament and make a Cousin Eddy Build-A-Bear. 

Even upscale retailer Pottery Barn rolled out a collaboration featuring 13 pieces priced from $15.50 to $149 such as bed sheets, pillows and stoneware. 

The film racks up 28 million unique viewers each holiday season, according to a 2022 article noting a licensing partnership with R.M Palmer candy company. 

Other licensing deals creating a sizable Christmas bonus for the film’s studio, Warner Brothers: 

• Scratch-off lottery tickets in Pennsylvania

• Blow-up decorations of Clark’s station wagon and Eddy’s tenement on wheels at Home Depot

• A Christmas village from Department 56 

You can also buy an advent calendar with tiny figures but if you want a recreation of the Griswold’s advent calendar in the film you’re going have to wait until 2025 -- the maker of these $4,000 masterpieces is fully booked.

Cool creator

Dan Larson and his team at Secret Galaxy specialize in providing YouTube with “bite-sized history lessons from some obscure, and not so obscure, corners of pop culture.” From toys to TV to movies and more, Secret Galaxy shines a light on the past with a heavy dose of humor. With 414K+ subscribers, the channel draws support from Patreon supporters and sponsors such as 80sTees, Factor meals and KiwiCo toy subscription boxes. My recommendation for a first watch: “The Sad Rise and Fall of Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza Place” -- and try to not to shed a tear that all the animatronic bands have virtually disappeared.

More nostalgia

🏀Vince Carter’s rim-rattling performance during the 2000 All-Star Weekend lives on in NBA fans’ brains and now his Toronto Raptors have immortalized that Slam Dunk Contest victory. Celebrating its 30th year in the league, the Raptors re-imagined their first dinosaur logo pulling off Carter’s under-the-leg jam on special edition jerseys, merch and, even, its court at Scotiabank Arena. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Carter earlier this year, and the Raptors retired his jersey on Nov. 2. One of two ’90s era expansion teams in Canada (the other: Vancouver, now Memphis, Grizzlies) the success of the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park” heavily influenced Toronto’s choice of a dino mascot. 

🎥World Wrestling Entertainment is bringing back “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” a 1980s institution that brought wrestling to network TV and countless headlocks to younger siblings. The series debuted in 1985 on NBC and returns to the network (and Peacock) on Dec. 14. Promotions for the show include the 1984 track “Obsession” by Animotion, a mainstay on the original program, and clips of bygone legends like Randy Savage. The show emanates from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island, N.Y., site of the first “Main Event.” 

🍕Pizza Hut’s Book It! program is 40. The program has rewarded young readers with 1.5 billion+ pizzas since 1984, Pizza Hut announced along with a promotion promising up to 1 million free personal pan pizzas -- with a minimum $8 purchase. Sadly, Book It! no longer uses purple buttons to help young readers track their progress -- but, you can score some sweet merch! 

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