WSHU's Beatrice Lovato grew up in a small village in Italy at the foot of the Prealps, which gets a magical touch during Christmas time. The sound of the wood crackling in the fireplace, the smell of a mug full of steaming hot chocolate, the view of the snowy mountains out of the window, and a Christmas movie on the TV are the basics for the winter season.
Christmas holidays have always been Lovato's favorite of the year; it’s a passion that her mom passed on to her and they now share. Over the years, watching one Christmas movie after the other became their holiday ritual, and they enjoyed it to the point that they took inspiration from what they saw in the films to decorate their own house in an attempt to recreate the Christmas magic.
Now she lives in Connecticut, a state where most of those movies were made, and the Christmas season is here, so driving through the small towns and lit-up main streets feels just like being in one of those movies.
On November 13, 2024, Connecticut launched the nation's first-ever Christmas Movie Trail, allowing visitors to explore 22 filming locations featured in popular holiday films from Hallmark, Netflix and Lifetime. The trail offers a unique opportunity to experience charming towns, cozy inns and iconic spots where beloved Christmas movies were shot.
The unveiling took place at the Silas W. Robbins House in Wethersfield, featured in Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane. It included actors Wes Brown, Erin Cahill, Michael Rady, and producer Andrew Gernhard, along with other state officials, such as Ellen Woolf, George Norfleet, Anthony Anthony, and Governor Ned Lamont.
This initiative taps into the popular trend of "set-jetting," where fans visit real-world locations seen in movies and TV shows to relive iconic scenes. The trail promises to provide fans with a magical and nostalgic holiday experience.
Lovato met with Andrew Gernhard, producer of many of the trail's movies, at the Griswold Inn in Essex, where both The Noel Diary and Christmas at Pemberly Manor were shot. He very often sets his movies in Connecticut because he thinks “Connecticut just says everything that the audience is looking for to feel good and watch in a Christmas movie.”
As a huge Christmas movie fan, Gernhard discussed why he thinks Christmas movies can have such a wide reach worldwide and shared precious thoughts about them.
“I think Christmas has become almost like a legend, and that’s where your core memories as a human are always gonna come from. I think that’s why people like Christmas movies, so that they can remember the past, look to the future, and live in the present; it’s kinda like you’re doing everything at once. I mean, your first kiss, your wedding, your divorce…all these things are big key memories, but the thing that’s always constant is Christmas, and I think that’s why people like that,” Gernhard said.
“There’s a lot of darkness in people’s lives, and I think Christmas is your escape from it. And I feel like the more people are escaping, the more this holiday expands,” Gernhard added.
No matter the culture, religion, or beliefs, everybody needs a little magic at Christmas, and there’s no better place to find it than in Christmas movies.