Nerd 5 Presents: The 12 Days of Christmas Day 3!

Day 3. Home Alone/Home Alone 2 Lost in New York – How do you pick between Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York? You don’t choose. You watch them both. Now, if The Wet Bandits have you backed into a corner and were forcing you to choose, then you say “keep the change, ya filthy animal!” hit them in the head with paint cans, then watch both films! Home Alone is a film that every 90’s kid grew up watching because it was everywhere and it made us laugh and it was what we all dreamed, to not have our parents around (even though secretly we wouldn’t want them to be gone long). Written by John Hughes and directed by Christopher Columbus Home Alone became a genuine holiday smash hit and made Macaulay Culkin a house hold name, so much so that in 1992, just two years after the film, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York made its way to the big screen. Both films feature Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, and Catherine O’Hara and find a way to show that the most important thing about Christmas is family. The third acts of both Home Alone films are modern day Three Stooges sketches and as I’ve grown older, their “comedic” value has fallen; however, that doesn’t mean that these films don’t have anything to offer an older audience.

Both films have moments of pure holiday joy, sadness, fear and catharsis. Now, I’m not saying these are the greatest, most perfect films you will ever see; but I am saying that they don’t deserve to be lumped into the “child’s film” category. The epitome of these moments is featured in the first film and features Culkin and Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley meeting face to face for the first time, and Culkin’s character Kevin McCalister realizing that he’s not totally alone this holiday season.

Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York are great films for the holiday season, to gather up your family and relive the joyous times of the past, as well as pass the tradition on the next generation.