Travel

Happy holidays, ya filthy animals: Home Alone mansion lands on Airbnb

The McCallister family home – ‘on the most boring street in the US’ – is taking bookings

Home Alone: the McCallister mansion, in Winnetka, Illinois, is up for rent. Photograph: Sarah Crowley/Airbnb

Deirdre Falvey's face
Deirdre Falvey
Fri Dec 3 2021 - 12:10

If you’ve ever fancied staying in the McCallister mansion – Home Alone’s actual fancy pad – living your dream of being a young fella mislaid by his parents as they skedaddle for Christmas, now’s your chance.

The opportunity to re-create the comic hokum of the holiday-classic movie, which starred a 10-year-old Macaulay Culkin as the left-at-home Kevin McCallister, will cost a surprisingly low $25, according to the new Airbnb listing for the house, which is in Winnetka, on the northern edge of Chicago.

Home Alone: Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister in the 1990 film

"Celebrate the season McCallister-style, ya filthy animals," the listing begins, using one of Home Alone's best-known phrases. Kevin's big brother Buzz – aka Devin Ratray, who plays him in three of the Home Alone movies, including this year's Home Sweet Home Alone – "will host the overnight stay in his childhood home while the McCallisters are away".

“This holiday season, we’re playing by my little bro’s rules, so feel free to eat junk food, watch rubbish on TV, borrow my dad’s aftershave and choose your own adventure with a legendary battle plan as a guide,” Buzz writes. “Just stay out of my room, okay?”

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Accordingly, the visit features microwaveable mac’n’cheese, “Chicago’s finest pizza”, a meet-and-greet with Buzz’s pet tarantula, Axl, and the green velvet robe Kevin wears in the movie. It also promises booby traps just like the ones Kevin laid for the burglars who targeted the mansion while his family was away (“but don’t worry – you’ll be setting them, not sidestepping them!”), as well as “surprisingly searing splashes of aftershave and ample opportunity to scream into the mirror”.

Home Alone: inside the McCallister mansion. Photograph: Airbnb

Home Alone: inside the McCallister mansion. Photograph: Airbnb

Home Alone: inside the McCallister mansion. Photograph: Airbnb

Home Alone: the green velvet robe – complete with aftershave – that Kevin McCallister wears in the movie. Photograph: Airbnb

Despite looking huge in photographs, the house – on what Buzz describes in the movies as “the most boring street in the United States of America” – can accommodate only four guests, according to the listing, which describes it as having two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms.

It’s not clear who owns the house or how it made its way to Airbnb, according to National Public Radio in the US, but the Washington Post reports that the night in the McCallister mansion will raise funds for children in need – and Airbnb says it will make a donation that will benefit a Chicago children’s hospital.

Bookings open at 1pm Chicago time – 7pm Irish time – on Tuesday, December 7th, with the overnight stay five days later. We’d rather not be the ones handling the mayhem as fans eager to relive childhood fantasies rush the site. It’s unclear if the listing is real or a giant promo for Home Sweet Home Alone and Airbnb. Either way, it has worked. Happy holidays, ya filthy animals.