Chevy Chase Makes Special Appearance At Family's 'Christmas Vacation' House

Chevy Chase, the face of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," showed up in South Jersey to surprise a family and help them light up their iconic lights display, which is themed after the holiday classic.

The Clark Griswold actor, 80, who is from New York, traveled to New Jersey just to see the famous house.

"This all started with this strand of lights," Steve Harbaugh, the owner of the house, said as he held up a string of lights at the lighting ceremony.

The famous "Christmas Vacation" house began in 2018 after Harbaugh's father passed away. The owner of the house decided to light up his neighborhood as a way to cheer himself up after the tragic event.

"True Griswold style, I plastered my house with 10,500 lights," he said.

Harbough got the nickname "The Clark Griswold of New Jersey," named after Chase's character, Clark Griswold, in the classic Christmas film -- and rightfully so!

In addition to the nearly 11,000 lights plastered across the property, they also have the iconic RV, cop car, and old vehicle with the tree on it from the film.

"It definitely kept you very festive and in the Christmas holiday spirit. I think we went to bed listening to the music from the movie constantly and I had dreams of that, but it was a lot of fun for the kids. We have three young children, so they really enjoyed it," Gina Harbaugh, Steve’s wife, stated.

The iconic house has drawn thousands of visitors over the years, especially this yea when word got out that Chevy Chase would be making a special appearance at the Harbough residence.

"It was very cool, we took all the kids and everyone loved it," Darcy Hagan, who visited the decorated house, told FOX.

"We wanted to do as many magical Christmas things as possible this year, and we’ve gone to the original house. It was incredible, but this whole experience makes it even better," Grace Paschall, another visitor, told the outlet.

"We all came to see Clark Griswold with our family, and we can’t wait to light it up," says Ashley Lugo, who showed up specifically to see Chevy Chase.

Now that the display has grown, it is now known as Harbaugh Village, as the family welcomes many visitors, and even collects holiday toy donations and raise money to help provide homes for families in need.

"All these folks here tonight in particular have been behind us since day one," Steve said.

The 1989 film quickly became a holiday classic, which stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Doris Roberts, and more.

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" follows Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), who wants to have a perfect family Christmas, so he annoys his wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line -- including the tree and house decorations.

However, things take a turn when his hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property.