“I love it here. You don’t got to put on your coat to go to
the bathroom, and your house is always parked in the same place.”
Ruby Sue National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Who
wouldn’t like to step back in time and imagine being invited to the
Griswold family Christmas? Just pull up in front of this home
located at 503 Legends Court in Mickleton, New Jersey and you get the
full experience. The owners, Steve and Gina Harbaugh recreated
this scene perfectly but added a little bit of elegance to their home
verses it just being plain red neck.
“Dad,
you taught me everything I know about exterior Illumination.”
Clark
Griswold
Getting
out of our car and looking at all the lights that Steve maliciously
put on his home was remarkable. It takes him a good week of work
just putting up the lights. There are 300 stands of white lights
covering his entire house with a total of 7,500 bulbs. Steve has
placed a tall ladder up against the house and there was poor Clark
Griswold hanging from the gutter on the top of his house.
“I
don’t know what to say, except it’s Christmas and we’re all in
misery.”
Clark
Griswold
He
put in an ad to try to find a 1973 Ford Condor that would fit cousin,
Eddie’s RV that he drove and parked out in front of Clark’s
house. He found one and bought it for $1000 from Jeff Norton and had
it shipped from California. Since then, he and Jeff have become good
friends. Jeff does the same in theme in California.
“That’s
a honey of a tree, Clark.”
Cousin
Eddie
The
RV looked authentic from the movie and when we looked in we saw it
was full of toys. He asked for donations of toys for children to be
given to Toys for Tots and a portion of the toys will go to Kelly's
Kidz, that help burn victims and kidney dialysis patients at St.
Christopher’s Hospital for Children. He had already filled up
his RV once this year with toys and now it was near full again. His
goal was to collect double to toys he collected last year which was
4,100 toys.
“Where
do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking
out on this fun, old fashioned family Christmas. No! No!”
Clark
Griswold
An
automated figure of Cousin Eddie holding onto a hose to pump out his
sewage graces the front of the RV. The head is latex and made by an
artist in California and his hand is moving up and down raising and
lowering his beer. Everyone was getting their picture taken with
cousin Eddie and we couldn’t resist either. We had to get a
picture with Joe standing next to him. In front of Cousin Eddie is a
board with a burnt figure of a cat on a board near him. So funny.
“Can
I refill your egg eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you
out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for Dead?”
Clark
Griswold
Parked
right in front of the house was a 1989 Ford Taurus Station Wagon that
he bought for $900 adorned with an eighteen foot Christmas tree
strapped to the roof. Steve bought the tree from Stimpson Tree Farm
and they thought he was crazy wanting such a large tree with root
ball and all. But they dug it up and helped him put it on the
station wagon that he actually uses to pick up his children from
school. It is amazing that tree didn’t crush his station wagon.
“We’re
kicking off our old fashioned family Christmas by heading out into
the country in the old front wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty
majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of
Christmas symbols.”
Clark
Griswold
He
also has a 1984 LTD police car with lights flashing parked up in
front. He adds something new to his display each year. This
display is a must for Christmas time. The season is now done as he
stops his display on January 1st. Make this a must see
for next season. It is just plain fun. Thanks for all your hard
work Steve and Gina and thanks to all who contributed gifts for the
children. This is a great tradition and there is word that some of
the neighbors want to get in on it next year and have themed houses.
Bye for now.
“Merry
Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Clark
Griswold
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