Throughout the years, iconic movies have been put out for Christmas time. Some of these include “The Grinch”, “The Santa Clause”, “Elf” and “Christmas Vacation”. While these are all amazing movies about Christmas, there is one movie that is often referred to as a Christmas movie that has nothing to do with Christmas itself. That movie is “Home Alone”.
The main argument for “Home Alone” to be a Christmas movie is the fact that it takes place at Christmas time but this does not make the whole movie about the meaning of Christmas. The fact that it takes place at Christmas is merely just an event to justify the reason the Mcallisters are going on vacation. They could have gone on vacation on any other holiday and the plot would have remained the same because the movie is not dependent on the specific holiday the producers chose, it is dependent on the Mcallisters going on vacation.
While most Christmas movies have some sort of message behind them about the holiday itself, “Home Alone” does not follow this rule and even more it even breaks this rule. In the beginning of the movie, the family is fighting amongst themselves, which shows how dysfunctional their family is. When they realize Kevin has been left at home, they still fight until they reunite with Kevin. The only reason they became a family again is because of the feeling they felt when they found what they had been looking for their whole movie.
Normally in a Christmas movie, this would be a good plot to set up the reunion of Kevin and his family as they learn the true meaning of Christmas and this may have been the case if they had not made a second movie. In the opening of the second movie, the family is right back to their old ways of fighting, which shows that the new feeling of finding Kevin and being reunited with him was only temporary and they really are just a miserable family who are so focused on their vacation.
This goes to show that the real meaning of the movie is the break-in and Kevin defending himself. And not about Christmas or what Christmas really means or stands for. As for the second movie, it shows more signs of being a movie about Christmas and the things you learn about the holiday along the way.
With all this being said, “Home Alone” is still an amazing movie and is a masterpiece in itself but it needs to stop being labeled as a Christmas movie as it has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas.
