Home Alone is one of the most universally popular and perhaps overly familiar Christmas movie classics, but here’s ten fact you might not know about it. So read on an impress your family by casually dropping a few into conversation during the obligatory seasonal re-watching.

1. John Hughes wrote the entire script in just nine days. His son, James Hughes claims he wrote it after a bout of traveller’s anxiety

2. The role of Kevin was written specifically for Macauley Culkin. The idea for Home Alone occurred to John Hughes during the making of Uncle Buck, which starred Macaulay Culkin. But that didn’t stop director Chris Columbus from auditioning more than 100 other rascally pre-teens for the part.

3. The film is a Guinness World record holder. In its opening weekend, Home Alone topped the box office, making $17,081,997 in 1202 theaters. The movie maintained its number one spot for a full 12 weeks and remained in the top 10 until June of the following year. It became the highest grossing film of 1990 and earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever domestically.

4. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry Lime. As did Jon Lovitz. Then Joe Pesci swept in and made the part his own.

5. Many of the interior shots of the interior house and other scenes were shot inside a High School in Chicago. The school’s swimming pool was converted into the McCallister’s basement. The school was also used for the police station and some airport scenes.

6. John Candy shot his entire part in one 23-hour filming day. He worked from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m., but even that wasn’t enough time for him to film a farewell scene with Catherine O’Hara, who played Kevin’s mom, when she arrives at her house.

7. While rehearsing the scene where Harry tries to bite off Kevin’s finger, Pesci actually bit Culkin, which left a scar

8. Marv’s line ‘why are you dressed like a chicken?’ was improvised.

9. The spider on Marv’s face was real, they filmed that scene in one take, he mimed the scream so he wouldn’t scare the spider.

10. The script originally ended with a short scene after the credits where Harry and Marv see Angels with filthy souls on tv in prison.

Merry Christmas you filthy animals… and a happy new year too.