Summary
- "Home Alone" is a Christmas movie because it is set during the holiday season and features Christmas imagery.
- The holiday in the film is incidental to the plot, and it could easily take place at any time of year.
- However, "Home Alone" is more than just a Christmas aesthetic - it explores the importance of family and delivers a heartfelt message that is unique to the holiday season.
Though the Macaulay Culkin-led movie has been a family film classic for over three decades, many still ask is Home Alone a Christmas movie? Released in 1990, the film follows young Kevin McCallister (Culkin) who is left behind accidentally when his family takes a Christmas trip to Paris. While enjoying his 8-year-old dream, the precocious kid is forced to fight off a pair of bandits who want to rob his home. With its playful approach and the star power of Culkin, the film had everything going for it, and it quickly became a beloved staple of early '90s cinema.
Home Alone went on to be a box office smash (via the movies in the Home Alone franchise failed to match the spirit of the original, demand has been high enough to justify a slew of sequels and reboots. As is usually the case with movies that involve Christmas, debate has raged about its legitimacy as a holiday film. Many believe that Home Alone is a certified Christmas classic, while others refuse to believe that the Christopher Columbus hit actually counts.
Home Alone Is A Christmas Movie Because It’s Set During The Holiday And Has Christmas Imagery
The most common argument for Home Alone being a Christmas movie comes down to the fact that the film is set during the holiday season and is jam-packed with familiar Christmas imagery. As Reddit Fluffy-AD-8272 succinctly put it, "Literally everything in Kevin’s house is green and red. Christmas colors. It’s a Christmas movie". While the nuance of the arguments usually goes deeper into the context of the story and how its themes fulfill many common Christmas movie tropes, the bulk of the debate comes down to the fact that the holiday factors so heavily in the mood of the movie.
Home Alone Is Not A Christmas Movie Because It Could Easily Take Place At Any Time Of Year
Those who believe that Home Alone is not one of the best Christmas movies of all time, or even a Christmas movie at all, point to the fact that the holiday is rather incidental to the plot. It is essentially just a contrivance to get Kevin alone, and an excuse for his entire extended family to be out of the picture. Reddit FN28B explained, "Home Alone is about Kevin defending his Home from burglars...The family could have flown on vacation in Summer for example, and the Story would still make sense". The film could have been set on any holiday with very little alteration to the actual plot structure.
What the second argument fails to realize though, is that Home Alone is so much more than a simple aesthetic Christmas movie. Behind all the snow, trees, and shiny red bulbs, it is a film about family and how one snotty little kid learns just how important it can be. The film starts with Kevin wishing he could be alone for the holiday, and when his wish comes true he learns just how wrong he was. While Santa never arrives with his sleigh, Home Alone is a Christmas movie because the heartfelt message within the subtext could not be swapped out for any other season.
