Christmas is so globally celebrated that even in Saigon, as the coldest time of the year approaches, you can hear Christmas hymms echoing from homes in the alley, and spot houses adorned with Christmas trees, Santas, snowmen, regardless of their cultural relevance to Vietnamese culture. For me, one of the activities that truly embodies this global spirit of Christmas is watching Home Alone (1990).
I first watched Home Alone in the early 2000s, when I was around 6 or 7 years old. At the time, the only way to see the film in Vietnam was to buy a bootleg copy from DVD stores, which my parents did for the whole family to enjoy. Back then, I didn’t know how to use a DVD player, so whenever I wanted to watch the film during Christmas or at any other time, I had to ask my dad to start it for me. Eventually, my whole family would join in, simply out of convenience since there’s only one TV in the house, and also it’s a fun family movie. This turned watching Home Alone into a family bonding experience for us during Christmas.
Furthermore, what makes this film so special for a Vietnamese kid, despite it being an American movie, is that for a child growing up in Saigon, where the weather is warm year-round, Home Alone was my first time seeing snow, something one only finds in areas distant from Saigon like Sapa. Which makes seeing snow on the TV screen even more magical, as to this day, I’ve never experienced snowy weather in person.
As time has passed, technology and the internet have made it easier for kids to access movies and explore the world around them, so they might view Home Alone as just another fun Christmas movie. But for me, and probably other Vietnamese around my age, the movie — with the hassle of buying bootleg DVDs and a weather phenomenon that seemed almost nonexistent in Vietnam — greatly conveys the Christmas spirit to a Vietnamese kid, even though it's entirely American.
