The ‘Glass’ Christmas Ornaments in ‘Home Alone’ Were Actually Made of Candy
Throughout Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the Wet Bandits endured some painful pranks from Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin.) As a result, there were several safety precautions taken by the cast and crew of these holiday movies.
Here’s what we know about one prank in the original Home Alone.
‘Home Alone’ features two robber characters nicknamed the ‘Wet Bandits’
After making a Christmas wish that he was an only child, Kevin finds himself alone in his house. His family didn’t disappear, though. They just accidentally left him at home alone while rushing out the door for their international flight.
Kevin has bigger problems on his hands, though, after running into two bad guys, one of them with a gold tooth. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern portrayed the Wet Bandits, Harry Lime and Marvin “Marv” Merchants respectively.
Although they planned to break in and rob the McCallister home, Kevin protects his house, setting booby tracks and gags to keep these bandits out of his house. These gags were varying levels of danger, with getting a BB Gun bullet to the eye and getting a paint can to the face being among the worst.
Marv steps on some ornaments trying to break into Kevin’s house
After trying one entrance and failing, Marv sees an open window. Little did he know that Kevin scattered glass ornaments across the floor so that Marv, now shoe and sockless from his previous attempt, would get a foot full of glass. The plan worked and the character yelped as he landed inside the house.
Just before the ornament incident, this character endured a 3-inch nail to the foot, sending him back outside of Kevin’s house. Compared to the other gags and mechanisms created by Kevin, this one seems not as bad.
“Walking on ornaments seems pretty insignificant compared to everything else we’ve seen so far,” one doctor with Mental Floss noted of the injuries. “If I was Marv, I’d be more concerned about my facial fractures.”
These ‘glass’ ornaments weren’t actually made out of glass
Of course, those weren’t actually glass ornaments shooting into Stern’s foot. According to Mental Floss, these decorations were actually made of candy. As an added precaution, the actor wore rubber feet for his barefoot scenes.
The Wet Bandits are, of course, caught by the end of the film and Kevin gets a new Christmas wish granted — for his family to come back.
The original movie Home Alone, as well as sequels like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, are available on Disney’s streaming platform. To learn more about Disney+ and to subscribe, visit their website.
