Growing up, ‘Home Alone’ was one of those Christmas movies that shaped my ideas of what Christmas should look like, a huge house, decorated to the nines in Christmas fluff, full of family and mayhem, maybe on the way to a big family vacation somewhere.
My house was tiny, not a stitch of Christmas anywhere, there were only four of us sad souls and we never went anywhere.
Yes, there was baby Jesus who we were taught was all we should really be concerned about, but as a budding child atheist, Christmas was a whole lot of other things for me. It was a time for reflection and a stark reminder that we were poor.