New Jersey family recreates Griswold house from ‘Christmas Vacation’

A Gloucester County family has taken decorating for the holidays to the next level for the second year in a row by once again decorating their home to look like the Griswold family’s home from the 1989 classic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

News 12 Staff

Dec 24, 2019, 12:40 AM

Updated 1,849 days ago

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A Gloucester County family has taken decorating for the holidays to the next level for the second year in a row by once again decorating their home to look like the Griswold family’s home from the 1989 classic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
The display at the Harbaugh home in Mickleton Township draws crowds of thousands. Steve Harbaugh has gone all out by covering the home almost completely in Christmas lights. There is a 1989 Ford Taurus Station Wagon with a Christmas tree on top – exactly like the one driven by Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold in the movie.
There is a 1984 Crown Victoria Chicago police car and a 1973 Ford Condor RV with an animatronic Cousin Eddie emptying the septic tank. The RV was shipped in from California.
Gina Harbaugh says that she has embraced her husband’s obsession.
“I finally asked him to decorate the house and when he decided to decorate, he put all the lights up,” Gina says. “And everyone said it looked so beautiful and it was so elegant and he said, no, that's not what we're going for.”
Hundreds of visitors come by every night – many bringing toys for the charity toy drive that the family started. In fact, so many toys were donated that they filled the RV three times over. All the toys will be donated to the Toys for Tots toy drive.