Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Winnetka to New York

Kevin wakes to an empty house after his family oversleeps and races to the airport without him. Much of the comedy comes from an eight-year-old having a large suburban home to himself, then defending it from the Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv. The exterior is a real three-storey house at 671 Lincoln Avenue, a colonial Georgian built in the 1920s; only the main staircase, attic and first-floor landing were filmed inside, with the rest duplicated on a sound stage. Since 1990 it has drawn visitors year-round, especially at Christmas.

The McCallisters' departure was filmed over four sixteen-hour days at O'Hare, in the American Airlines terminal identified as Terminal 3. In the rush to catch the flight, Kevin is accidentally left behind; in the sequel he is separated here again and boards a plane to New York while carrying his father's bag and wallet. The same airport stood in for both Chicago and Orly Airport in Paris in the first film.

Visitor guidance: A working airport; the airport sequence is set in the American Airlines terminal, identified as Terminal 3.

On Christmas Eve Kevin slips into a church, watches a choir rehearse and finally speaks to Old Man Marley, the neighbour Buzz has told him is a serial killer who murdered his own family. The exterior belongs to Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette, a real congregation north of Winnetka; the film uses it as an unnamed local church. Marley is estranged from his son, and Kevin urges him to reconcile; the two wave to each other on Christmas morning.

Location precision: The film's church is unnamed; the pin marks Trinity United Methodist Church, which supplied the exterior.

Visitor guidance: A working church on Lake Avenue; visit outside service times.

The interior of that church, where Kevin sits through the choir and has his talk with Marley, was filmed at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park, west of Chicago. The parish supplied the interiors while Trinity supplied the exterior, so the screen church is really two buildings. Grace is a working church in Oak Park, not a set. In the film the building is simply a church; the two real congregations split the part between them.

Location precision: The film's church is unnamed; the pin marks Grace Episcopal Church, which supplied the interiors.

Visitor guidance: A working parish on Lake Street in Oak Park; visit outside service times.

Kevin checks into the Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue with his father's credit card, talks the desk clerk into a room and explores New York on the hotel's tab. The lobby scenes were shot in the real hotel: Donald Trump, then its owner, let the crew film there and asked for a cameo in return. The production pulled up the lobby carpet for Kevin's slide across the floor, uncovering old tilework that management decided to keep. In 2017 and 2018 the hotel sold Home Alone 2 packages with memorabilia and in-suite ice cream.

Visitor guidance: A working hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street; the lobby is the part seen in the film.

Kevin meets the pigeon lady on a walk in Central Park: a homeless woman surrounded by pigeons who frightens him at first and later saves him from Harry and Marv. Their scenes were shot in the park, one of the sequel's confirmed New York locations. She tells him her life fell apart after a betrayal; he urges her to trust people again and later gives her one of Mr Duncan's ceramic turtledoves. The park is also where Kevin leads the bandits and slips on the ice.

Location precision: The sequel uses Central Park for several scenes; the pin marks the park rather than one exact spot.

Visitor guidance: Open parkland; the southern end is closest to the Plaza and the Wollman Rink named as a filming spot.

Duncan's Toy Chest, the shop where Kevin meets the kindly Mr Duncan, has its street front on the Rookery Building in Chicago's Loop. The 1888 Burnham and Root landmark supplied the exterior and one of its lower levels; the shop interior was filmed elsewhere. In the scene Mr Duncan gives Kevin a pair of ceramic turtledoves and asks him to pass one on. The Rookery is an office building, not a shop, but the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust runs weekday tours of its interior.

Location precision: Duncan's Toy Chest is fictional; the pin marks the Rookery Building, which supplied the storefront and a lower level.

Visitor guidance: The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust runs weekday tours of the interior.

The toy shop's interior is the Uptown Theatre, a 1925 movie palace on North Broadway that has been closed since 1981. Its vast auditorium stood in for Duncan's Toy Chest, where Kevin meets Mr Duncan. The Uptown is the largest remaining movie palace in Chicago, with 4,381 seats, and decades of restoration plans have come and gone. In 2026 it opened for Open House Chicago, the first public viewing since it shut.

Location precision: Duncan's Toy Chest is fictional; the pin marks the Uptown Theatre, which supplied the shop interior.

Kate guesses that Kevin will be at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, because he loves Christmas trees, and that is where mother and son finally reunite. The scene was shot at Rockefeller Center, and the tree is a real annual fixture: usually a Norway spruce 69 to 100 feet tall, put up in mid-November and lit in late November or early December. It stays on display at the plaza entrance of 30 Rockefeller Plaza past January 6, so a winter visit can still catch it.

Visitor guidance: The tree goes up in mid-November and stays past January 6; the plaza is open to the public.