5 For: Surviving Christmas (2004) | Money, Make-Believe Families & Holiday Meltdowns

The Machine, still shaking off the glitter and contractual awkwardness of Surviving Christmas, has decided Truman and Landen need a deeper look at the cinematic lineage surrounding holiday chaos, consumerism fantasies, and dysfunctional families. This week it spits out five thematically tangled films—some cozy, some chaotic, all spiritually connected to Affleck’s attempt to purchase a perfect Christmas.

These five films have been chosen by the Machine for their shared DNA of holiday mayhem, wish-fulfillment gone sideways, and families pushed to the brink.

• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) – the gold standard of festive dysfunction and holiday meltdown

• Arthur (1981) – wealthy man-child learns life lessons through privilege-fueled hijinks

• Blank Check (1994) – kid suddenly acquires wealth and immediately misuses it in deeply ’90s ways

• Christmas with the Kranks (2004) – a same-year holiday comedy disaster steeped in forced merriment and suburban pressure

• We’re the Millers (2013) – strangers posing as a family for money, with chaotic road-trip consequences

Why These 5?

Each of these films echoes a core component of Surviving Christmas: the fantasy of buying comfort, the absurdity of holiday expectations, or the comedic fallout from assembling a makeshift “family” under questionable circumstances. They draw a line from classic seasonal dysfunction to modern fake-family capers, showing how the trope mutates across decades—sometimes charmingly, sometimes catastrophically. Together, they form a crooked cinematic wreath around everything Surviving Christmas was trying (and often failing) to be.

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Tags

Surviving Christmas, Surviving Christmas 2004, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Arthur 1981, Blank Check 1994, Christmas with the Kranks 2004, We’re the Millers 2013, holiday movies, dysfunctional family films, fake family trope, wealthy protagonist films, consumerism in cinema, Movie Memory Machine, movie podcast, curated films, film discussion, cinematic analysis, forgotten movies, cult films, film history, podcast episode