WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE?

DIE HARD?

ELF?

MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL?

I have a Christmas tradition which answers the question for me.

HOME ALONE is just as dated in its way as Dickens' Christmas Carol.

Yet for me it is forever young.

Chris Columbus' movie represents both a childhood long left behind and, 

indeed, a bygone age that doesn't make sense anymore viewed from the 21st century. 

The entire premise of HOME ALONE is now an impossibility, 

 because how could a child end up accidentally abandoned 

and declared missing in this new Millennium of mass communication? 

With post-War on Terror airport security checks being what they are, 

the McCallister parents couldn't possibly get on a plane to Paris without noting that one of their group is AWOL.

Today, Kevin would be live-tweeting his ordeal, 

sticking giddy selfies all over cyberspace and then - if he started to feel frightened and forlorn - 

signing-in to Skype to sing Christmas carols to his folks in France.

 It's actually quite fascinating and strangely comforting to revisit 

this quaint pre-internet, pre-mobile phone era of VHS tapes and 4:3-ratio TVs. 

And with regard to its precise place in history, 

as a film it also marks the timely convergence of John Hughes in his peak

 with a star about to go nova and a cultural environment that was ideal 

for HOME ALONE's explosion as an international mega-hit.

The film deftly uses Christmas as a narrative engine on which to power a resonant comedy-action-drama.

This fun movie continues to resound in the hearts of all children, no matter the age of their bodies.

The secret to HOME ALONE's longevity

 is its delicate balancing of a sense of peril and menace 

with a sense of fun and a sense of sweet Christmas-ness: 

all elements beautifully expressed by John William's wonderful score. 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE 

AND WHY?