Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail<\/a> \u201d map, which was launched by the wintry New England state last year to cash in on the growing Christmas-movie craze.<\/p>\nMayfield, who co-owns the company with her husband, Ken, said this was their first Christmas tour to holiday movie locations in Connecticut and other Northeastern states. It included hotel accommodations, some meals, tickets and even a stop to see the Rockettes in New York City. It sold out in two weeks.<\/p>\n
With snow flurries in the air and Christmas songs piped from a speaker, the group stopped for lunch at Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre, where parts of the Hallmark films \u201cChristmas on Honeysuckle Lane” and \u201cRediscovering Christmas” were filmed.<\/p>\n
Once home to America\u2019s oldest seed company, the store is located in a historic district known for its stately 1700s and 1800s buildings. It’s an ideal setting for a holiday movie. Even the local country store has sold T-shirts featuring Hallmark\u2019s crown logo and the phrase \u201cI Live in a Christmas Movie. Wethersfield, CT 06109.”<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just know about us now,\u201d said Julia Koulouris, who co-owns the market with her husband, Spiros, crediting the movie trail in part. \u201cAnd you see these things on Instagram and stuff where people are tagging it and posting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept of holiday movies dates back to 1940s, when Hollywood produced classics like \u201cIt’s A Wonderful Life,” \u201cMiracle on 34th Street\u201d and \u201cChristmas in Connecticut,\u201d which was actually shot at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.<\/p>\n
In 2006, five years after the launch of the Hallmark Channel on TV, Hallmark \u201cstruck gold\u201d with the romance movie \u201cThe Christmas card,\u201d said Joanna Wilson, author of the book \u201cTis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made-for-TV Movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHallmark saw those high ratings and then started creating that format and that formula with the tropes and it now has become their dominant formula that they create for their Christmas TV romances,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The holiday movie industry, estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year, has expanded beyond Hallmark and Lifetime. Today, a mix of cable and broadcast networks, streaming platforms, and direct-to-video producers release roughly 100 new films annually, Wilson said. The genre has also diversified, with characters from a wider range of racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as LGBTQ+ storylines.<\/p>\n
The formula, however, remains the same. And fans still have an appetite for a G-rated love story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to see people coming together. They want to see these romances. It\u2019s a part of the hope of the season,\u201d she said. \u201cWho doesn\u2019t love love? And it always has a predictable, happy ending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hazel Duncan, 83, of Forest City, North Carolina, said she and her husband of 65 years, Owen, like to watch the movies together year-round because they’re sweet and family-friendly. They also take her back to their early years as a young couple, when life felt simpler.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hold hands sometimes,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s kind of sweet. We’ve got two recliners back in a bedroom that’s real small and we’ve got the TV there. And we close the doors off and it’s just our time together in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connecticut’s chief marketing officer, Anthony M. Anthony, said the Christmas Movie Trail is part of a multipronged rebranding effort launched in 2023 that promotes the state not just as a tourist destination, but also as a place to work and live.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what better way to highlight our communities as a place to call home than them being sets of movies?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, there continues to be debate at the state Capitol over whether to eliminate or cap film industry tax credits \u2014 which could threaten how many more of these movies will be made locally.<\/p>\n
Christina Nieves and her husband of 30 years, Raul, already live in Connecticut and have been tackling the trail \u201clittle by little.”<\/p>\n
It’s been a chance, she said, to explore new places in the state, like the Bushnell Park Carousel in Hartford, where a scene from \u201cGhost of Christmas Always\u201d was filmed.<\/p>\n
It also inspired Nieves to convince her husband \u2014 not quite the movie fan she is \u2014 to join her at a tree-lighting and Christmas parade in their hometown of Windsor Locks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, listen, let me just milk this Hallmark thing as long as I can, OK?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WETHERSFIELD, Conn. — WETHERSFIELD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 \u201cChristmas at Pemberly Manor\u201d and \u201cRomance at Reindeer Lodge\u201d may never…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":450244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[206920,347,44679,171,57,1165,53,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-450243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-206920","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-christmas","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-u-s-news","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115727566637451402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}