'Home Alone's Kevin Probably Wouldn't Have Survived in Trump's America

Along with carolling, opening presents and quietly resenting family members while ingesting copious amounts of red wine, watching Home Alone has become an annual holiday tradition. 

While the McCallister family’s yuletide child abandonment quickly turned into a wacky burglar-abusing adventure back in 1990, we can’t help but wonder: how would Kevin McCallister fare in the America of 2025?

The finance website GOBankingRates recently outlined some of the glaring economic discrepancies between the world of the movie and real life today. For starters, the McCallisters’ spacious house was worth around $875,000 when Home Alone was released. But earlier this year the house sold for $5.5 million, even despite the fact that the interior has had all its Christmas magic gentrified away. 

But it’s not just housing costs that have skyrocketed. As most of us are well aware, grocery prices have also shot up. While Kevin was able to survive on groceries that totaled just $19.83 (with a one dollar coupon), last year reporters found that the same order was more than twice as much: $46.20

According to GOBanking Rates, in 2025, Kevin’s list would cost a whopping $66.67 which is “nearly a 300% increase,” due to “years of inflation, tariffs, rising food costs, political upheaval and supply chain issues.” But Kevin’s $20 would only be worth $49.70 with inflation, and therefore not enough to buy the food he needed (assuming that the green plastic army guys didn’t cost that much). 

So there’s a non-zero chance that 2025’s Kevin would have just starved to death, a cruel twist nearly as depressing as the one in the Home Alone Game Boy tie-in game.

But none of this really matters because the McCallisters wouldn’t have been able to leave Kevin home alone in the first place if the story took place now. 

Back in 1990, “11 economy and four first-class tickets on American Airlines” – the official airline of child neglect – “would have cost about $35,320.” Nowadays, the cheapest ticket from Chicago to Paris between December 20 and 26 is $1333 with “multiple stops” and $2323 for the “most direct route.” And non-stop first class tickets cost $20,067 each. Yeah, if the McCallister family took the same trip in 2025, the adults would have had to drop over $80,000 (more than $10,000 above the average American’s annual income) just to be slightly more comfortable and ensure that they wouldn’t notice any missing children. 

All in all, the McCallister family’s Christmas vacation would cost “upwards of $105,921” in 2025 money. And since Peter and Kate McCallister’s combined ‘90s income, based on their “implied careers,” is around $234,000, or $405,000 today, it’s highly “doubtful” that they’d be able to afford their Paris trip at all.

Unless, of course, Kevin’s dad really was connected to the mob.