People are shocked after finding out the age of Kevin's mom in Home Alone

If you had to choose one movie to watch this holiday season, it’s highly likely you’d pick Home Alone.

Easily one of the most popular Christmas films around, it’s been over 30 years since the first one was released.

So, you might think you know the McCallister family like their your own.

But what a lot of movie fans don’t realise is just how old the actor who played Kevin’s mom, Kate, really was when Home Alone was made.

Of course, it was Catherine O’Hara who played this role – let’s be real here, no one could have shouted ‘KEVIN’ any more iconically.

Kate was mom to a larger amount of kids than average, which was one of the reasons the youngest son found himself left behind at home in the first place.

Because being honest, the movie wouldn’t have made as much sense if the parents planned a vacation with just two children, before accidentally forgetting half of their offspring.

20th Century Fox

To help justify the plot, O'Hara instead played mom to Kevin, Megan, Linnie, Jeff and Buzz McCallister - who was quite clearly well into his teens at the time of the movie's events.

The family lived in a huge house that would easily set you back a few million, and it's these context clues that might lead you to believe Kate is at least approaching middle age.

And while we don't learn her age in the movie, it's O'Hara's age in real life at the time that’s left people stunned.

When the Schitt's Creek actor featured in the Christmas movie, she was only 36 years old - far from the oldest mom in the world.

Anna Webber/Variety via Getty Images

This was noted by one TikToker, who pointed out that while O'Hara might have seemed well into adulthood in the film, at the time she was actually the same age that Lindsay Lohan is (well, she’s now 37 but she was 36 during this revelation).

It just goes to show that context really is everything - and that people these days are allowed to stay younger for longer.

The TikToker, who goes by the name @justbri_always, proved this gloriously, when she added that the Golden Girls were meant to be in their 50s.

However, if they were to be played by actual women in their 50s these days, this would include the girls from Friends.

It’s certainly a good one to save up for your office’s Christmas trivia quiz this year.

Topics: Christmas, Film and TV, Entertainment, Macaulay Culkin

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_