Christmas film or Christmas claim?

As well as being the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas can also be the most expensive. Mainly because we’re buying presents and food and going out to have a good ol’ time. Although when it comes to having a rest, most of us will pop on a Christmas film but how could some of the scenarios in our favourite festive films create a whopper of an insurance claim?

Let’s start with the Christmas classic, Elf. Buddy the Elf is definitely one of the more complex customers to insure when it comes to life insurance; as an elf’s four main food groups are ‘candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup (did someone say high cholesterol?). Buddy could also do with travel insurance as he walks all the way from the North Pole to New York City; which is approximately 3245 miles! However, we think the main insurance claim from this film would be when Santa’s sleigh breaks down in Central Park. They do manage to increase festive spirit in the City which gets the sleigh going again. Maybe our motor cover would have made their lives easier as we would have organised a courtesy vehicle and repairs on the sleigh (we’re pretty sure HNW motor would cover Santa’s sleigh!).

Next we have Deck the Halls, which is all about having a house which has so many Christmas lights that is can be seen from space. When Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) meets his new neighbour Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito), he realises he’s not his cup of tea. However, we can’t blame him once he notices Buddy stealing his electricity. On both our Standard Home and HNW Home our customers are covered when nightmare neighbours steal electricity. There’s also an expensive business interruption claim when Steve accidentally sets all the Christmas Trees alight.

While we’re on home insurance, what about Home Alone - most people’s favourite Christmas film. Kevin’s family decide to go Paris for the Christmas break, but in the chaos of getting everyone to the airport they accidentally leave him behind. The mischievous 8 year old can’t believe his luck as he can finally do what he likes. As time goes on, he starts to miss his family and he realises his neighbours friends are planning to burgle his home. Kevin decides to rig the house with booby traps to catch the burglars and calls the police. Our Standard and HNW home will cover you for burglary and we will support you through the process. Although he was working in self defence we do not recommend replicating the film as it will compromise your home cover!

Another comedy Christmas films is The Santa Claus with Tim Allen. This film has a classic accident at work claim when Tim Allen’s character, Scott, is woken on Christmas Eve night to find a man on his roof. Scott startles the man who slips off the roof and unfortunately dies. The dead man's body disappears, leaving behind a Santa outfit and card that says anyone responsible for hurting Santa Claus must put on the outfit and continue from where he left off. The card also states that "the Reindeer will know what to do", so Scott puts on the outfit and spends the rest of the night delivering gifts with his son before the reindeer take them to the North Pole. We obviously don’t want any of our customers employees to get hurt or die but rest assured they are coved by our Business insurance if anything does happen!

Let’s move onto one of our favourite romcom Christmas Films, The Holiday. Iris is left heartbroken when her ex announces his engagement at their work Christmas party. On the other side of the world Amanda is furious finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her secretary. Both women decide they want to get away from reality and come across each other’s houses on the internet. When Iris suggests house swapping Amanda agrees and they swap for the Christmas holidays. This film doesn’t have an insurance claim but wouldn’t it be better if they had their own second homes to escape to?! We cover second homes as part of our HNW policies.

Luckily we didn’t insure Bruce Willis when he played John McClane in the 1980’s
classic Die Hard, which isn’t your typical Christmas film (many people claim it is!). However, we definitely cover terrorism which is the main part of the films plot.

-Ends-