Sweet “Home Alone” Alabama.
A shop at the Plaza Hotel hosted the finals for its Kevin McCallister lookalike contest on Sunday morning. The winner, 6-year-old Landon Collins, flew to New York from his home state of Alabama to compete in the event at the iconic Manhattan hotel, where scenes from the movie “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” were filmed.
And, really, the only difference between Collins and the actual Kevin McCallister was that his family accompanied him.
They’ll now return to the hotel after the holiday season so Collins can spend the day like Kevin after winning the contest’s grand prize: an overnight stay at the Plaza and its full “Home Alone: Fun in New York” package.
That includes a limousine ride around New York City, which Collins said is the part he is looking forward to most.
“Cause you have a cheese pizza,” he said, “and it’s big.”
Waiting for him on a silver platter back in the room will be Kevin’s famous bedside 16-scoop ice cream sundae.
Two scoops, sir?
“Sixteen,” Collins answered. He’s not driving.
But he still won’t be able to have the entire sundae to himself. Just like Kevin, he has siblings. His sister Lily and younger brothers Leo and Lewis will also be making the trip and getting a bowl of ice cream.
“We’ll dish it out on them, too,” said their mother Olivia Lindsey said with a laugh.
Collins wore Kevin’s full outfit, including the coat, khaki pants and backpack. He peaked over an open newspaper with a front-page headline showing that the Wet Bandits escaped. His blonde hair stuck out from the front of his Kevin beanie from Qiviuk Boutique, the handcrafted knitwear shop that hosted the contest and sells replicas of the winter hats worn by McCallister in the “Home Alone” movies.
“It was pretty easy with the face that he’s got,” Lindsey said of putting her son’s Kevin costume together.
The shop announced the contest in late November, collaborating with digital creator New York Mickey. Contestants ages 12 and under were welcome to submit photos via e-mail or stop by the shop to try on Kevin’s hat and do their best impersonation.
“We’ve been handcrafting these beautiful hats for about a year and a half and we realized that the hat itself brings memories and experiences to kids,” said Fernando Alvarez, president of Qiviuk Boutique. “The movies really [resonate] with holiday time, with family time. We thought to enhance the experience we should have a lookalike contest because every kid in the bottom of their heart feels like Kevin: adventures, being able to fend for themselves, be in a big city.”
Five finalists were invited to the big city on Sunday to compete in the final round at the Plaza, where finalists were served hot chocolate and serenaded with Christmas carols by Hannah Adams, Benjamin Brooks and Paulina Reyes — musical theater students at Marymount Manhattan College.
Each contestant received a complimentary Kevin hat and was asked to perform one of the character’s famous lines from the “Home Alone” movies.
Collins went with the classic, “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.”
Runner-up Cole Tomanek, standing in front of a backdrop of the McCallister house that his family brought with them from Massachusetts, dropped the line, “You guys give up or you thirsty for more?” Answering that question was one of the Wet Bandits – Tomanek’s sister, Kyla, who was dressed as Harry with a crowbar, burnt head and feather-covered jacket.
Seven-year-old Anderson Forman from Long Island, New York, did Kevin’s famous eyebrow raise after saying, “My family is in Florida and I’m in New York.” He also made a replica of Kevin’s famous Talkboy recorder for the occasion by applying Magna-Tiles, Legos and other accessories to an old cassette player.
“This was the hard part,” he said. “I found an old music player and you have to put something in it to make it play music. I used Magna-Tiles and glued it here and then we spray painted the whole thing.”
Collins and his family first found out about the contest when his grandmother — Mimi, as he calls her — visited New York in November.
She was en route to the airport when she heard about the contest on the radio.
“She texted me and said, ‘Can we enter Landon?’ and I said, ‘Of course!’” Lindsey said. “He is a big ‘Home Alone’ fan, but our Mimi is just a bigger fan of New York in general.”
They submitted Collins’ photo and he was soon named one of the finalists. The family, like the McCallisters, likes to travel, so they booked a flight to New York for a quick two-night stay.
“There was never really a doubt that we were just gonna hurry up, get our plane tickets and be gone,” said Collins’ grandmother Misty King. “And it was perfect. It all worked out because it was meant to be.”
What did Collins think of his first trip to New York?
“It’s very, very snowy,” Collins said, having arrived one day before the city’s first winter storm of the season dropped a coating of snow on the area.
“We feel very blessed,” Lindsey said of the family’s New York experience, calling her son’s win a “Christmas miracle.” “It’s outside of what we’re used to. Our kids have mentioned how different it is from home multiple times.”
They’ll soon head back to sweet home Alabama, where the skies are so blue — returning to New York in the new year for their full stay at the Plaza Hotel.
That’s when Collins will get his room, limo, pizza and ice cream. And what will he do if Harry and Marv show up?
“Set traps,” he said.
