The Weird Connection Between ‘Christmas Vacation’ and a Famous Pornstar

If you’re like me, December means revisiting a long list of favorite Christmas movies. What’s the holiday season without a stop by the McAllister home to see Kevin defend his home from burglars in Home Alone? Or watching Scrooge discover his dormant humanity in A Christmas Carol? (I prefer the George C. Scott version, for the record.)

Near the top of my list is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the 1989 comedy about a hapless father determined to recreate an old-fashioned holiday celebration for his long-suffering family. Though tepidly received by critics in its day, the movie has grown into a classic, thanks to memorable physical comedy and plenty of hilarious dialogue from writer John Hughes. Despite its flaws, the movie perfectly evokes the messy, marvelous madness of a great family Christmas.

I’ve probably seen this movie at least 20 times, and I thought I knew every scrap of trivia about it. It was originally to be directed by Harry Potter filmmaker Chris Columbus, who bowed out when he didn’t get along with star Chevy Chase. Sure, heard all about it. The opening scenes were shot in Colorado. Got it! Aunt Bethany is played by the original cartoon voice of Popeye’s girlfriend, Olive Oil. So they say!

But I was today years old when I discovered that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has a peculiar, fascinating connection to the wonderful world of porn.

No, I’m not referring to the porn spoof, This Isn’t Christmas Vacation XXX, which is worth watching if you’re a fan of Christmas porn. (And really, who isn’t?)

And no, I’m also not referring to Mary, the brunette beauty who prompts Clark Griswold to lose every hint of composure during Christmas Vacation’s downtown shopping scene. (To the best of my knowledge, Nicolette Scorsese, the actor who plays this role, has never appeared in an adult movie, although I’m sure traffic to such a video would spike considerably at Christmas if she had.)

Nope, Christmas Vacation’s unusual connection to Porn Valley is all in a name. It involves a filmmaker named Jeremiah and an adult star who became famous for her fearless embrace of ultra-hardcore porn shoots.

At the beginning of her career, porn performer Adriana Chechik was asked by Adult DVD Talk to describe the origins of her stage name. “Chechik, there was a guy named David Chechik who did a lot of directing. He did some horror movies, not anything big or popular but something that stuck in my head,” Adriana said.

There is no David Chechik, at least not on any film database I could find, so Adriana apparently meant Jeremiah S. Chechik, who has directed thrillers like the Diabolique and horror series like Bitten. Adriana confirmed as much in an Instagram live video from 2023, which included the remarkable admission that Chevy Chase was the first celebrity she ever fantasized about. Thus she selected “Chechik” for her porn surname as a sly, obscure reference to her own sexual awakening.

Mr. Chechik got his first big Hollywood break directing – you guessed it – National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Originally from the world of TV commercials, he stepped in as a last-minute replacement director on the project. He can even be glimpsed briefly in the movie on the cover of the People Magazine Clark Griswold is reading in bed. (Why Adriana didn’t simply choose “Chase” as her porn surname is unclear. Perhaps that would have been too on the nose.)

Thus an all-time Christmas classic has the stamp of a man whose distinctive last name inspired the unique branding of an all-time great adult star. And she gravitated to that stage name because of an eccentric attraction to the Vacation series lead actor. Didn’t find that one in the pop-up trivia track of your old Christmas Vacation DVD, did you? It’d be akin to discovering that, say, Stormy Daniels chose her porn last name because she’d had a crush on Boy Meets World‘s Mr. Feeny, played by William Daniels.

Go forth, holiday-movie lovers, and wow your friends with this unexpected slice of Christmas Vacation knowledge!

Given that Chechik is particularly famous for her triple anal scene, it brings new meaning to Cousin Eddie’s quip that the “shitter is full.”

Watch the Christmas Vacation porn parody >>