By Kim Hyatt

Owatonna People’s Press

OWATONNA — Macaulay Culkin was neither home nor alone for Christmas this year.

Rather the former child star — who played Kevin McCallister in the 1990 original and 1992 sequel film “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” — spent the holiday in Owatonna with the Tillmann family.

Culkin was in the city with his good friend Sean Tillmann — aka singer-songwriter Har Mar Superstar — who was home for the holidays.

“Mack and I have been great friends for a while now. I was in Paris, where he lives now, visiting a few months ago when I was playing a show. I thought it would be fun to show Mack the Owatonna holiday experience with my family and return the hospitality,” Tillmann wrote in an email after the holiday weekend. “Small town holiday time is a lot of fun. We mainly hung out at the house with my parents and brother relaxing and having some laughs. We did get to venture out to Reggie’s on Christmas night and meet up with some old friends. We had a blast.”

On Christmas Day, Har Mar posted photos on his Instagram account of 35-year-old Culkin posing in front of the Christmas tree with Tillmann’s mother Mary Kaye, father Michael and brother Patrick.

That evening Culkin and the Tillmann brothers enjoyed some beer and a Heggie’s pizza at Reggie’s Brewhouse in downtown Owatonna.

Culkin is fond of pizza, especially eating plain cheese pizza in the back of limousine. Not only are there several pizza scenes in the Christmas comedy films, but he made a band, The Pizza Underground, in 2013.

The band is based in New York City and parodies Velvet Underground songs with a pizza spin. Culkin sings and plays the kazoo while other members bang on pizza boxes.

In fall 2014, Har Mar and the Pizza Underground toured the U.S. with one performance in Minneapolis at First Avenue on Nov. 1, which is where Michael and Mary Kaye first met Culkin.

“[Culkin] was a nice guy. He’s been a good friend of Sean’s for a while,” Mary Kaye said, adding that she didn’t think it was unusual to be hosting the “Home Alone” star for the holidays.

“Home Alone” celebrated it’s 25th anniversary in November with a collectors edition and some theaters reshowing the film where Culkin crafts booby traps to protect himself from two burglars.

Following the anniversary, Culkin appeared in a new comedy web series, :DRYVRS, which was created and written by musician, actor and producer Jack Dishel. In the debut video of the series, Culkin recalls the trauma of being left home alone — twice — and the damage the experiences had on his life.

“It’s Christmas time, and your whole family goes on vacation and they forget their 8-year-old son. I was just a kid,” Culkin says in the video. “All by yourself in a house for a week. I had to fend off my house from two psychopath home invaders. I mean I still have nightmares about this bald weirdo dude chasing me around…”

Har Mar and Culkin stayed in Owatonna until Saturday when they celebrated Mary Kaye and Michael’s 45th wedding anniversary before heading to Eaux Claire. On New Year’s Eve, Har Mar will perform at Chicago’s Double Door.

“It was nothing out of the ordinary. We did all the same stuff. There was just another person at the table,” said Har Mar’s mother Mary Kaye Tillmann. “It was just like having another son in the house.”

Har Mar said that with his sister Megan out of town celebrating Christmas with her husband’s family “we needed a stand-in [and] Mack, with his illustrious long hair, was the obvious choice.”

—Distributed by the Associated Press.