Home Alone is a 1990 Christmas comedy film about an 8 year old boy being left behind by his family while they go on vacation and him having to defend his house from two idiot burglars. []
Uncle Frank set up the Burglary[]
In the first two Home Alone movies Kevin McCallister's uncle, Frank McCallister is portrayed as a grumpy cheapskate who always jumps the the opportunity to go on an extravagant vacation when his little brother, Peter announces it. This theory suggests that Uncle Frank was secretly jealous of his brother's wealth and success, so he was the one who hired the two burglars, Harry and Marv to rob the homes on their street so he can be the one with loads of cash and to knock Peter down a peg.
Though he didn't count on his nephew being left home alone (no pun intended) to foil his plot.
The entire movie is Kevin's Catatonic Fever Dream (ala Cameron in Ferris Bueller)[]
Kevin witnessed the horrific home invasion murders of his entire family and is the sole survivor. His mind cannot handle this and left him catatonic. As a coping method, he instead has them going on a big trip and accidentally leaving him behind. And to deal with how he couldn't do anything to prevent it, he comes up with all the booby traps, the brutality of which would have killed Harry & Marc over and over again, punishing them for what they did to his family.