People shocked after finding out real age of Kevin’s mum in Home Alone

With the festive season comes an annual debate - what's the best Christmas film?

Elf and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are modern classics. And 1946's A Wonderful Life will have you reaching for the tissue box. You might even have some mates who think they're edgy and cool and consider Die Hard a perfectly acceptable festive offering. They're wrong.

But real ones know that the only correct answer to the age-old question is Home Alone (and its equally fantastic sequel Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, of course).

The 1990 flick sees Macaulay Culkin as eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, who is accidentally left behind when his family leaves for a Christmas vacation to France.

At first, he's living his best life as the man of the house, but when hapless thieves, the Wet Bandits, try to break into his home, he's forced to put up a pretty epic fight.

The second instalment follows a similar storyline, except Kevin is romping around New York on his own and Donald Trump makes an appearance. Christmas chaos at its finest.

The classic films are watched by millions every festive season and viewers have been left with a few questions over the years.

Firstly, how much is the iconic house worth?

And, how the hell can the McCallisters, who have five children, afford to pay for a trip to Paris for them and their brother’s family? We need to know the dad's job right now!

But, more recently, fans have been left in shock after discovering how old Catherine O'Hara (Kevin's mum, Kate) was when the movies were made.

While many of us assumed she was much older, O'Hara was just 36 years old during the filming of the first instalment.

Home Alone fans were shocked to learn than Catherine O'Hara was just 36 when the first movie was filmed (20th Century Fox)

One person took to X to share their shock. "It blows my mind that Catherine O’Hara was my age when she filmed Home Alone. I think she seems so much older than I feel."

Another wrote: "Watching Home Alone with the kids. Catherine O’Hara is the same age as me but looks more like a grown up than I do. Is this the thing with older films? Like how the parents in Father of the Bride are actually in their 40s."

And a third penned: "My friends and I determined that Catherine O’Hara was my age in Home Alone. I need to lie down."

As for the price of the McCallister's iconic home, in case you were still wondering, the Lincoln Avenue property in Winnetka, Illinois, sold in 2023 after being listed for a cool $5,250,000 (£3,890,000).