re: Official Home Alone is a Christmas movie thread

I didn't even know this was a topic of conversation, of course it's a fricking Christmas movie.

Catholic lite? Anglican/Episcopal churches have midnight mass, too!

Read...

Only 7? I am probably on 50-60.

Anyone have the link to the incredible over-analyzation of Home Alone thread that was done on here?

It's pure gold.

First page of this thread and the first page of the DH thread...only two...but there are websites out there arguing it, too.

quote:

---

Unlike DH, there is no way that you can claim HA is not a Christmas film.

---

While I admit that HA is a stronger case for being a Christmas movie, it is arguable. The family trip could have been anywhere, Disney, Hawaii, etc.

There was a little more Christmas, overtly, in and around HA, but it is essentially a reverse heist film. The funny bad guys come to get the kid who is Home Alone.

No supernatural, no Santa, no Jesus - there is a running theme of family, but I do not see:

quote:

---

Christmas is the central idea, the setting, and a reoccurring symbol within the film.

---

Beyond merely superficial signs - other than the drive of the family to get back and the reunion at the end. Other than that, Christmas forms part of the setting but is not central to the movie.

In other words, the plot of, say, The Santa Clause - falls apart without Christmas - ditto for Christmas Vacation or Scrooged.

With HA - a little tweak here and there - movie works fine in the Summer, or another holiday.

(Full disclosure - I do see it is as a Christmas movie, but just barely. )

In South Korea, Christmas is a national holiday but it's not celebrated quite the same way it is in America. Most people will watch one of two movies on Christmas: Home Alone or Die Hard. My first year here, I asked my students what they would be doing and they answered, "I'm spending Christmas with Kevin." After some questioning I learned this is code for watching Home Alone.