Christmas movies that would benefit from insurance coverage

It’s less than two weeks until Christmas, and insurance professionals are looking forward to some downtime following an unprecedented year.

The 2020 holiday season may look different this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s a good bet that more people will be home watching their favourite shows to help prevent the spread of the virus.

If you’re taking in your favourite Christmas movie during the holidays, consider the insurance risks, courtesy of CFC Underwriting. The specialist insurer recently published an article, Hazardous holidays in our favourite Christmas movies, which has been adapted by Canadian Underwriter.

CFC lists their favourite holiday classics and delves a little deeper into the insurance risks. “Our favourite Christmas characters don’t always have the smoothest of journeys, and luckily there’s usually a happy ending, but in reality, a good insurance policy wouldn’t go amiss.”

Elf

The loveable Buddy the Elf is pretty confused about his upbringing after he discovers that he’s actually a human. Before he heads to New York to find his biological father, he’s working in the North Pole and is the worst toy maker in the world, so he’s demoted to toy tester to keep an eye on quality control.

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“Sadly, if Buddy isn’t good at making toys, he’s probably not good at checking them, so we think a product recall policy could be pretty handy,” CFC said. “A product recall policy would cover rectification costs, loss of sale, and reputation protection – a good fit all round for the North Pole.”

Nightmare Before Christmas

Poor old Jack Skellington is longing for something more than Halloween and stumbles across Christmas Town. He instantly becomes enchanted with Christmas Town and his obsession leads him to abduct Santa Claus.

“Oh hello, kidnap and random policy, wouldn’t it be handy to have you around?” CFC asks. “24/7 access to expert response consultants, insurance against extortion, disappearance investigation costs, and costs incurred during a hostage crisis. Christmas Town would have really benefitted from this one.”

Arthur Christmas

Arthur and Steve are Santa’s sons and there’s a little bit of family competition over who is going to be the Big Red Guy’s successor. Arthur is the good-natured klutz, while Steve is techy and organized, heading up an ultra-high-tech craft that delivers gifts to the world’s children with military precision.

The tech set up for this mega-ship is an impressive one, but it’s a cyberattack waiting to happen!

“Frankly, we’re quite surprised Steve doesn’t already have a comprehensive cyber policy offering protection against the impact of system business interruption or a major data breach,” CFC says. “Either event could lead to billions of pretty sad children.”

Die Hard

No Christmas movie list would be complete without the addition of Die Hard. Set on Christmas Eve, John McClane drops in on his wife’s work Christmas party, but it all goes wrong when a group of terrorists make an appearance. The terrorists take control of the building and hold party-goers hostage. But of course McClane, a New York City cop, escapes detection and begins to take down the terrorists one by one.

Never a better use for a terrorism policy! Cover for damage to premises, restriction of access to property and utilities, and loss of income.

Home Alone

Kevin McCallister is accidently left behind when the rest of his family go on holiday over Christmas. The movie isn’t complete with rogues Harry and Marv, who repeatedly try and break into the McCallister’s home.

Forget the obvious child neglect and the questionable parenting: Make way for professional liability cover. Harry and Marv probably class themselves as real professionals and these two could do with some professional liability insurance, especially errors and omissions cover, which includes bodily injury and property damage*.

*Disclaimer: CFC has not updated its appetite to include burglars.

Love, Actually

This Christmas British romantic comedy has a medley of characters, stories and love interests, and they’re all inexplicably connected.

“It’s a double whammy of insurance needs in this film,” says CFC. “We’re throwing in media licensing [cover] for Billy Mack’s disastrous musical rendition of ‘Wet Wet Wet,’ as well as some management liability insurance for the prime minister’s budding romantic relationship with one of his household staff.”

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The Griswolds have grand plans for Christmas, but nothing is quite going to plan. Unexpected family members show up, citywide power shortages erupt due to excessive Christmas light installations, a harmless kidnapping, and a few explosions.

“Quite honestly, this situation needs all kinds of insurance, but we’re looking at property and casualty because the family home goes through some detrimental changes,” CFC wrote in the article. “Bodily injury and property damage liability would be vital for the Griswolds and that unfortunate electrocuted cat.”

Feature image by iStock.com/Satyrenko