Ohio couple recreates iconic light display from 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'
Man with cystic fibrosis, his wife raise more than $50K for research
WADSWORTH, Ohio -- Chevy Chase raised the bar for every dad looking to outdo the neighbors with their Christmas light display.
But even Clark Griswold may have finally met his match!
If you live in northeast Ohio, you have probably heard of the famous Wadsworth Griswold house, although at this point, it's kind of world famous, and even the stars of the movie know about it!
For the last 11 years, Greg and Rachel Osterland have erected an increasingly even more accurate recreation of the display from the 1989 classic "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."
The journey to this jolly obsession actually started with Greg's childhood, when his family would not just watch the movie every Christmas Eve.
"They would pause the movie, and you had to reenact the entire scene," Greg said.
Over the last decade, as the family has roped in neighbors and expanded the production, the house has even become quite famous.
"If they type in Griswold house, our house is usually the one that shows up, just like Chevy Chase's house," Greg said.
In fact, Greg and Rachel have even chatted with the movie's stars, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo.
"We had a lot of fun discussing the house. She pulled it up on Facebook, and 'This is your house?' And, 'Yep, this is what we do.'"
But perhaps most impressively, over the last 11 years, they have collected donations and raised more than $50,000 for a nonprofit called Great Strides. It funds research for curing cystic fibrosis, which Greg was diagnosed with at 6 years old.
"Haven't felt this good in a long time, just because of some of the research that they've done some medicines that have come out," Greg said.
But Greg said if they do find a cure for this disease, it's not like his family is ever going to stop bringing this much "joyyy tooo the world!"
"Then, we're going to figure out what to raise money for next," Greg said.
