Not Getting A Holiday Bonus Was Once Such A Betrayal That It Became The Plot Of One Of The Most Iconic Christmas Movies
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock One of the most iconic Christmas movies is undoubtedly “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” It tells the story of Clark Griswold, who has put a down payment on a backyard pool and expects his annual holiday bonus to cover the rest. Naturally, Clark doesn’t get a bonus this particular year and is instead given a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club.
Just like you decorate your tree and wrap presents every year, there’s a good chance that another one of your Christmas traditions is watching holiday movies. Who doesn’t love rewatching those films you’ve enjoyed since you were a kid and letting the nostalgia remind you of Christmases past? But if "Christmas Vacation" is your fave, chances are you've wondered just how much was Clark's holiday bonus supposed to be?!
Since this is a nice Christmas movie, everything works out for Clark, but many workers are left underpaid all year long and don't even expect a bonus.
Clark does eventually get his holiday bonus, but only after his cousin kidnaps his boss and holds him hostage. Not only would that situation turn out very different if someone were to replicate it in real life, but thousands of younger workers don’t even know the meaning of a holiday bonus because it just doesn’t happen anymore.
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Writing for the Monday Morning Economist, Jadrian Wooten explained that holiday and end-of-year bonuses fall into the category of nonproduction bonuses, which are not tied to performance. “They’re often token gestures, with everyone receiving the same amount regardless of role, output, or results,” Wooten said.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that end-of-year bonuses are much more common than holiday bonuses, although there’s admittedly not much differentiation between the two if you’re the one receiving them.
The amount Clark typically received for his bonus is something that most people could only dream of today.
One Reddit user set out to find out just how much Clark’s holiday bonus was since it was basically the entire plot of the movie. Their reason for asking shouldn’t be overlooked, though. “I’m still relatively young and I’ve never worked a job that paid a sizable Christmas bonus like you see in the film,” they said.
In other words, because this person is young, they don’t really even understand what a holiday bonus is. They are simply a thing of the past that modern-day workers can barely wrap their heads around.
Internet sleuths and “Christmas Vacation” fans got to work running the numbers. The highest-voted response to the question suggested that, since Clark was a chemical engineer, he would have been making around $75,000 to $80,000 in the late '80s. Based on the likely amount he would have received for a bonus, plus the probable cost of a pool back then, his bonus was probably around $20,000. Of course, this is just guesswork and never actually confirmed in the movie, but it seems accurate enough.
$20,000 may have seemed like an expected holiday bonus in the '80s, but it sounds impossible today.
Business News Daily reported that the average holiday bonus in 2024 was $2,145. That’s a major difference from $20,000. Financial feasibility is no doubt playing a role in the decrease in holiday bonus amounts and the decrease in bonuses in general, but it can also be dangerous for companies to regularly give out money like that.
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According to Matthew Wride, the COO of consulting firm DecisionWise, bonuses are hard to deal with once they become the expectation. “Clark’s boss had likely never promised there would always be an annual bonus, but the company’s course of conduct over time certainly created an expectation in Clark that ran a mile deep,” he said.
So, part of Clark’s problem was that he just assumed there would always be a holiday bonus for him to enjoy. Workers today are facing a different problem, though. Now, holiday bonuses are incredibly rare, and when they are given out, it’s in small amounts that barely make a difference. It’s a far cry from the era when not getting a holiday bonus was enough to kidnap your boss.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
