Rewatching a Childhood Favorite With My Kids: The ‘Home Alone’ Movies

Ever since Disney+ showed up, parents have been clamoring to share their childhood favorites with their kids, from television series (live-action and animated) to movies. From what I’ve observed, this has sometimes had mixed results. Some kids embrace the “old school” stuff happily. Others give their parents a confused look and don’t get why the parental unit in question thought this was so cool. Nostalgia hits heartbreak fast.

But this year, when I told my kids that the Fortune Cookie Soap Advent Calendar was going to be Home Alone themed they quickly asked: “What’s Home Alone?” At that moment I realized, we hadn’t brought out this essential ’90s holiday classic for them yet, and they were just about the right ages for the movie. Disney+ does stream both Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, so we wouldn’t even need to go buy a copy. I hadn’t seen the movies since I was a kid, even though I loved them as hard as any other ’90s kid could have. My favorite tabletop gaming trick of buying caltrops to stick under windows or places you have to defend from other humanoids was inspired by Kevin McCallister and the glass Christmas ornaments. Sometimes rewatching a childhood family film or show finds the former child who is now the adult siding more with the grown-ups. Was that going to happen here? Was I going to catch any…