Macaulay Culkin Just Reignited the Die Hard Debate With a Home Alone Twist
Macaulay Culkin just threw snow on Die Hard’s holiday cred, telling Mythical Kitchen on TikTok the action classic isn’t a Christmas movie because its plot could happen any day — a hot take that instantly sparked Home Alone comparisons.
It is not the holidays until someone restarts the 'Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?' argument. This time, the spark came from Macaulay Culkin himself, and yes, the guy from Home Alone has thoughts.
What Culkin said (and where he said it)
In a viral TikTok for Mythical Kitchen's Last Meals, Culkin weighed in on the eternal debate. The clip basically tees him up as the guy best qualified to judge, leaning into his whole 'Godfather of Christmas' aura. His stance: Die Hard happens at Christmas, sure, but the story is not married to the holiday.
"No, it's not. It's based around Christmas... if it was also St. Patrick's Day, it would still be - it would work," he says in the video. "But you couldn't do, like, Memorial Day Home Alone, no. It doesn't work that way. I'm just sayin'. Look, I'm kind of the Godfather of Christmas nowadays, so yes, my opinion has some sway."
Fans then did what fans do
People immediately jumped in with counterpoints, jokes, and a few pretty solid logic checks. The big pushback: Die Hard only functions because John McClane is trying to reconcile with his family at Christmas. Swap out the holiday and you lose the emotional engine. Meanwhile, some folks argued Culkin is underestimating how portable Home Alone actually is.
- One person deadpanned that Die Hard is just Home Alone "with firearms."
- Another said the Die Hard plot hinges on McClane attempting to be with his family for Christmas, which sets everything in motion.
- Several flipped the comparison: "Home Alone is a Die Hard movie," or the R-rated version goes the other way around.
- Others argued Home Alone could easily work outside December: Kevin's family dashes off for, say, a Memorial Day weekend at a lake house, the house gets robbed, chaos ensues.
- A popular take summed it up: even if you think Die Hard is or is not a Christmas movie, Culkin's reasoning does not quite hold. If Home Alone can survive a holiday swap, then Christmas is at least as crucial to Die Hard as it is to Home Alone.
So who is right?
Setting aside the seasonal warfare, Culkin's bit is funny precisely because he is the unofficial face of Christmas movies. That said, the audience made a fair point: if you can plug Home Alone into any long weekend and get the same movie, it is tough to argue Die Hard is the one that falls apart without Christmas. Either both are Christmas movies that use the holiday to juice the story, or both could technically function elsewhere. Personally, I am fine letting them share the tree.