One of the defining features of the Christmas season is the plethora of films centered around it, and my personal favorite among them is Home Alone. Released in 1990, the film quickly became a hit at the box office and went on to become a classic among other holiday movies, with it melodic blend of slapstick comedy, child’s play, and Christmas values.
Now having marked its 30th anniversary, the film is as timeless as ever with how it evokes the spirit of the season with the focus themes such as family, love, and togetherness. This is similar to many other Christmas films, though Home Alone – with its tagline “A Family Comedy Without the Family” – does so in an oblique manner.
The main character, eight-year-old Kevin McCallister – played by Macaulay Culkin – is the runt of the family who gets no respect, and he in turn, acts like a brat toward them whilst in the midst of preparing for a Christmas trip to Paris. After getting banished to the attic, he wishes for his family to disappear, and due to overnight high winds, a tree branch falls on the power lines which knocks out the electricity and results in the family oversleeping. During the rush to get to the airport on time, they forget Kevin, and he believes his wish has been granted, but his euphoria of unsupervised freedom gives way to the reality that he is home alone, lonely, and scared – especially with the “Wet Bandits”, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), lurking around.
He comes to miss his family and once they realize he’s been left behind, they realize they miss him too. Kevin’s mother Kate (Catherine O’Hara) scrambles to get back to him in Chicago, but not before the robbers realize that Kevin is by himself and believe they can take advantage of the situation to rob the McCallister house. However, Kevin resolves to defend his house and rigs it with a battery of booby traps to keep the burglars at bay, often with a great deal of pain, and they are eventually arrested and taken to prison. On Christmas Day, Kate finally returns home (with the help of a traveling polka band) and she and Kevin apologize to each other before the rest of the family arrives and his reunited.
In short, the film demonstrates the meaning and value of family by showing what life can be like without it, because let’s be honest – there are times when many of us wish for our families to not be around. Every child wishes that their parents could go away, and every parent wishes their child could go away, but in reality, these feelings mean actually that at times, we just don’t want to be bothered and also seek better treatment. Kevin got what he wanted when he said, “I never want to see any of you jerks again!” but calls for his mom when he gets scared and when he really believes he’s wished them all away for good, he resorts to asking Santa Claus to bring them back. In the end, they are all too happy to be back together, reconcile, and enjoy Christmas safe and sound with each other.
This spirit of family reconciliation extends to the McCallister’s neighbor, an elderly gentleman known as Old Man Marley. In the beginning, he is said to be responsible for slaughtering his whole family and half of his block with a snow shovel, becoming known as the “South Bend Shovel Slayer”, which makes Kevin scared every time he encounters him. However, it turns out that Marley is a kind man, about whom an urban legend has been perpetuated for years, and when he and Kevin do sit together in church on Christmas Eve, he reveals that he and his son have had a long-running feud which has kept him from having a personal relationship with his granddaughter. After bonding over their respective family issues, mutual fears and anxieties, Kevin suggests that Marley just bite the bullet and call his son, so that if nothing else, he can at least say he tried to reach out. Sure enough, as the McCallister’s are reunited on Christmas Day, Marley and his son have reconciled, and the old man his finally able to hug his granddaughter, for which he shows gratitude toward Kevin by waving at him as the film concludes.
All of this is indicative of the spirit of Christian love and redemption, where by following the path of Jesus, we may be able to overcome that which divides us and have greater appreciation for the people and things in our lives. Kevin, Marley, and their respective families are able to make this journey through seeking the outcome they desired. For Kevin, that meant asking Santa for his family back (in lieu of material gifts) and desiring to reverse his original wish, and for Marley, it meant making a phone call to his son. In either case, it is a demonstration of what is spoken in Matthew 7:7-8.
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Meanwhile, Kate McCallister’s determination not to be held back by booked airline holiday flights in the quest to return to Kevin showed the depths of a mother’s love. She gave away personal possessions to get on a flight out of Paris to Dallas, ends up in Scranton, and accepts a ride with a polka band on the way to Milwaukee. Going out of her way in this manner went a long way in redeeming her for the way she treated Kevin in the beginning, which again, is a core part of the Christian faith.
This comes back to the spirit of Christmas itself being at the core of the film. The season of togetherness and love takes on a special meaning because of the desire to be with our loved ones and share in the joy and perpetual hope which have made Christmas a special time for many people, whether they be Christian or not. Home Alone demonstrates how acutely meaningful this becomes when the family isn’t there because of estrangement, geographical distance, or as we’ve experienced in our lives, due to the pandemic.
The film creates a setting that is evocative of Christmas, especially with regard to the use of greens and reds in the clothing choices and the interior decoration of the McCallister house, which results in a timeless warmth that cements its status as a holiday classic. For that matter, the house itself, a three-story red-bricked Georgian located in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois, became a sort of character in the film because of its perfect external proportions, as well as for the fact that it radiated warm and welcoming feelings that made you want to live there, which is testament to its selection by writer/producer John Hughes and director Chris Columbus.
Another stand-out element of the film is its music, which was scored by the legendary film composer John Williams. The main theme, Somewhere in my Memory, captures Kevin’s loneliness and the desire for his family to return, whilst the secondary theme, Star of Bethlehem, is a modern-day Christmas carol which is at once menacing and hopeful in its spirit of hopefulness and light out of despair and darkness. Both of them, with lyrics provided by Leslie Bricusse, are now as much synonymous with the Christmas season as they are with the film, becoming seasonal standards which are performed by bands, orchestras, and choirs at all levels and competencies throughout the world.
All of this ties into my personal love of Christmas. Home Alone and its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, were the first films I remember watching, and as such, they left an impression on me, especially with regard to the meaning and importance of the Christmas season, which is my favorite time of the year. Putting up exterior Christmas decorations was inspired by how the McCallister house was decorated with lights, and when there was a rare snowstorm in my hometown of Savannah, GA, it brought about the full effect of the “Home Alone look”, which brought joy to my heart. The soundtrack – featuring a mix of classic carols, complementary music, and John Williams’s score – is the foundation of my vast Christmas music playlist. The overall sense of warmth, magic, religious significance and family which flow from the film have informed how I feel about the holiday and why I always loom forward to it with greater anticipation than my birthday.
Intertwined with the somber and joyful themes of Christmas are the comedic elements which give the film some of its most memorable moments, from the running gag of the lawn jockey being knocked over by vehicles, to the severely pain-inducing booby traps set by Kevin to ensnare the Wet Bandits, which themselves are reminiscent of a standard Looney Tunes cartoon. There was old-fashioned slapstick humor, much of it driven by Culkin’s mannerisms, wit and smart alec ways, which were full of mischief and provided much laughter. There was also the fake 30’s-era gangster film, Angels With Filthy Souls, which was used to great effect three separate times to make an otherwise brutal murder scene into a hilarious sequence which has been parodied many times over.
The film also featured the late John Candy as Gus Polinski (the “Polka King of the Midwest”), who provided light-hearted moments, as well as wholesome solemnity as he and his band helped Kate McCallister on the journey back home. Though his screen time was only about ten minutes, he provided a sweet and helpful reassurance as the good Samaritan, which gave the role an enhanced significance and added another layer of Christian teaching and the Christmas spirit in the film.
In the final analysis, I believe that the film has stood the test of time because of its prefect blend of Christmas spirit, Christian values, and comedy. This durability is marked by how ubiquitous it is as a “must-see” film during the holiday season, the extent to which parts of the film are memorized and reenacted, and the extent to which people who were kids 30 years ago are now sharing the Home Alone experience with their own kids. If the film has an ethos, it is perfectly captured in the lyrics to the main theme, Somewhere in my Memory.
Candles in the window
Shadows painting the ceiling
Gazing at the fire glow
Feeling that gingerbread feeling
Precious moments, special people
Happy faces, I can see!
Somewhere in my Memory
Christmas joy all around me
Living in my Memory
All of the music
All of the magic
All of the family home here with me!