The Decibel - The real town behind Hallmark’s Christmas movies

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

At this time of year, there’s nothing better than settling in with a good Christmas movie. When it comes to the made-for-TV variety – usually made by Hallmark, or, Netflix – they tend to follow a formula: girl from the big city ends up in a small town, connects with a local guy, they encounter a series of surmountable obstacles, and eventually, end up together – with a heavy sprinkle of holiday magic. A lot of these movies are filmed in and around Almonte, a town about 40 minutes west of Ottawa. It’s been used so many times that SNL mentioned that they’re all “filmed in a month in Ottawa” in a 2017 sketch, and the New York Times profiled the town back in 2020. According to the municipality, 24 movies have been shot there since 2015.The town has a sparkle that shines through in these movies… and our producers wondered whether that sparkle was as bright in real life. In this holiday special episode, The Decibel goes to Almonte to see if the town is as full of Christmas magic as it is on screen.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

So Michal, you're one of our producers here on The Decibel. But by night, I hear that you are quite the Christmas movie connoisseur. It is true. I do love to watch Christmas movies. So what are, I guess, what are some of your favorite Christmas movies? Okay, so my absolute favorites when it comes to like the big blockbusters are for sure The Holiday. I love a

Nancy Meyers movie. Another one that I really love is Elf. But I also really love watching the made for TV Christmas movies. So these are like Hallmark movies, Netflix movies. And something that I really love about these made for TV ones is that they all kind of go over the same tropes. They have a lot of the same beats. It really does follow a formula. And I called a director named Maxwell McGuire, who's done a lot of Christmas movies, and he talked me through what those beats are. Usually you get an aspirational young woman with a mission,

and she either comes home or goes away, and then she meets somebody. They are not on the same page to begin with but they obviously have a little bit of chemistry and we know we'll be seeing both of them together later on. Challenges from her original journey and then challenges from the relationship intertwine and eventually they figure a way to find the true versions of themselves and enjoy the holiday together and come back for a beautiful kiss with twinkle lights and Christmas trees all around. Some of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies from the last few years are A Kismet

Christmas and A Biltmore Christmas and a Netflix movie that I loved this year was Hot Frosty. And Hot Frost, yes. Oh, my goodness. And if you haven't seen Hot Frosty, it was number one on Netflix for a while. And part of it was filmed in this small town called Almont, which is about 40 minutes outside of Ottawa. And a lot of Christmas movies are filmed there. And you actually got to go to Almont, right, Michal, with With our other producer Ali. Yes, Ali and I went a couple weeks ago. We were wondering whether, you know, that sparkly Christmas magic that comes through in the movies is actually there in real life. And so we went to

go see if we could find it. All right, why don't you take us to Almont? All right, let's go. I'm Anika Raymond-Wilms. And I'm Michal Stein, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Historically, Almont was a textile town. It was also the birthplace of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, and home to the famous puppeteer, Noreen Young. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were seven wool mills operating there, and that legacy lives on in the town's main strip, Mill Street. It's a road that gently slopes down a hill full of antique shops, a diner, craft stores. There's the old post office with a town clock that's been turned into a restaurant, Postino's. The road curves toward the Mississippi River,

the Canadian Mississippi River, and a small waterfall. At the bottom of the hill is the very charming Mill Street Books. Like director Maxwell Maguire told us, a Christmas movie always starts with a woman on a mission that takes her to the small town in question. So come along with us to Almonte, where over the next five acts, we look for that small town holiday charm that has captivated so many movie producers and the hearts of audiences. Act One. A stranger comes to town. I was an engineer working in process automation in Montreal,

and my daughter had visited the bookstore during the pandemic and had told me, oh mom, you got to go visit Mill Street Books. So I did, and I was just enchanted by the place. It was so lovely. I really felt at home. Anne Shea was in her late 50s at the time. She was living in a western suburb of Montreal. And for some reason, I started following them on Facebook, which I just don't do. It was just so random. And that was in August. This was back in 2020. At Thanksgiving that year, they made a post on Facebook that they were selling their business and selling the building. And I just kind of took a leap of faith and sent them an email and then came back to Almont for the second time and introduced myself and kind of made the deal to buy the business and quit my job and become a bookstore owner. On the day we met Anne, the store was bustling.

You know, if Christmas movies starred women in their late 50s at the time, like I don't think I'm the exact demographic that is portrayed in the Hallmark movies however I think the the late in life career pivot is something that a lot of people went through during the pandemic in particular people you know we questioned what we were doing with ourselves and how we wanted to spend the rest of our time on earth. And a lot of people have told me that I'm living their dream. I've never been happier than right now. Yeah, that's the hallmark moment. Well, almost. You know, I couldn't have done this

without the support of my husband. I didn't need to move for love. Just down the road from Mill Street Books, volunteers were starting to set up the stage for one of Almont's biggest events, Light Up the Night. It's basically a Christmas concert outside. That's Tiffany McLaren. She works for the municipality of Mississippi Mills.

That includes Almont and Pakenham, which is about 10 minutes up the road. She says Light Up the Night is a big deal in Almont. Wayne Ronstadt is a Canadian icon, but he's local. Wayne Ronstadt. Keep that name in mind for later. Would come and sing Christmas in the Valley, and they would turn on the lights, and it was a smaller thing. And then it very quickly, within a year or two, developed to a bigger thing, and they started closing the street and having concerts. And you can't even walk through the crowd because there's over 5,000 people on the street.

And it's just a beloved tradition. And it always kicks off our Christmas weekend. When I first started calling around to people in Almonte, I was told that I had to talk to Don Willey from Home Hardware. He's been involved for 30-some-odd years, and now he's the chair of the event. I start January to get ready for December. I'm always thinking ahead who I want on, who should be on, and everything else. And Don has actually been an extra in one of the movies filmed in Almonte.

I was in, um, which one was it now? Give me a second. It's the, oh my God, it's the limb tree or the Christmas. It was the one with the limb where they had a tree that they were protecting. And I was just a stand-in right there, just being sad, looking up at the tree as they were going to tear it down. It was called Something of a Limb, I believe. I just can't remember the first part of it. Out on a Limb?

Out on a Limb, or I don't know. I just can't remember the exact name of it. I think it was called Love on a Limb or something like that. That's Angie Giles, who runs a daycare program in Mississippi Mills. And they finally saved the tree and everything else. To be honest, the tree ended up getting cut down in reality. Most of the people I spoke to weren't bothered by the movies filming here. A lot of them seemed to like it.

But, of course, there's always a Scrooge. I've had somebody come stand in the middle of the set and be like, I'm not moving. You guys shouldn't be here. We're like, we have permits. They're like, yeah, but you don't have my permission. That's Maxwell Maguire again, the director we heard from at the start. He's made 13 Christmas movies and a Hanukkah movie, Mistletoe and Menorahs. It's a quintessential small town, and it's close enough to a city that you don't feel remote. For us, it's like a studio backlot in Ottawa.

Almont might be like a studio backlot, but it is a real town. And while many Almontonians are happy to help with production requests, not all of them are possible. Like the one they got about the Mill Street waterfall. One time the movies, when the movies were here, they asked us if we could turn down the falls. No, sorry, you're gonna have to do that in post-production. That's Tiffany, who works for the town. We chatted while the light up the night stage was being wheeled into place. When I spoke to a location manager, Matt Cassidy,

he said that Tiffany is usually his first call when he wants to film in Almonte. The reality is it goes back to those relationships that you create. Knocking on the door to that restaurant that you filmed at three times and you need to make sure that you execute exactly what you're going to do, pay them on time, and also talk to all the neighbors, all the local businesses that are going to do, pay them on time, and also talk to all the neighbors, all the local businesses that are going to be affected by our filming activities. And sometimes, those neighbors become crucial parts of the film production. We were filming on the main street. It was late at night, and it was supposed to be covered in snow. But they were filming in early spring. There wasn't any snow in town. So we were trying to use special effects snow. But they were filming in early spring. There wasn't any snow in town. So we were trying

to use special effects snow. The snow machine broke. So Matt thought of a local, Pat Arbor. So I called Pat and I said, Pat, I need some snow. And he said, okay, Matt, let me think about it. I'll call you back. So he called me back a few minutes later and said, you have to call Countryside Contracting. Tell them I sent you. Matt called up Joe at Countryside Contracting, and Joe said that he'd look into it for him. So then the producers are, you know, grilling me about where's the snow, Matt? Where's the snow? So Joe ended up calling a farmer that he knew that had trees that were on the right side of his barn that there was still snow underneath. So about 15 minutes later, all I heard was that beep, beep, beep, beep of a

dump truck full of snow being plopped onto the main strip of Almonte. Okay, we're walking in the very, very cold, cold, cold, cold city of Almonte. It is minus six degrees right now, going down to, I believe, minus nine. I'm going to bring the mic over here because my hand is freezing cold. That's why I'm actually going to put my hand away. We'll be right back. Okay, so we've been through a few of the usual beats of the made-for-TV Christmas movie. We've had the woman from the big city end up in the small town. That was Anne Shea, the owner of Mill Street Books. Not to mention me and Allie, two big city reporters out of their depths in the small town.

We've met people around the town and got a sense of what to expect from the big central holiday event, light up the night. But an absolutely crucial element that nearly every made-for-TV holiday movie must have is a love story. We met a woman named Emily Arbor. Emily owns a shop on Mill Street called Cheerfully Made and knows a lot of the other business owners pretty well. There's a restaurant called North Market a few doors down, which has also been used in movies. It's owned by a couple, Rick and Amanda Herrera. They have like the ultimate hallmark story.

Rick moved to Elmont and before he even, like the moment he stepped onto Elmont pavement, it was in front of their shop now. And Amanda was the first Elmontonian that he met. And that's just where they happened to meet. And now they're married and have a kid and own that place. And it was very much like the guy moves to the town and she's like an incredible chef. It's true. We went there for lunch. She makes a mean pumpkin soup.

Act 2. Lunch at the Civitan. Another element that most Christmas movies have is a scene that gestures at the idea of giving back at this time of year. Maybe there's an auction for charity that the lead has to help with. Or a child who comes to the couple for help. Something that encapsulates the spirit of giving. So we wanted to see where that spirit was in Almont. Did you have lunch? Because there's salad, there's buns. Oh my goodness. Okay. And your coat's up in there. And I'll feed you. That's Alice Puddington, a very active member and the former president of the Almont Civitan Club.

She's retired, but she's still incredibly busy. We just finished serving. This room was full, full, full. I think between takeouts and our guests, I think we served about 165 meals today. On the first Thursday of every month, from March through December, they host a community lunch at the Civitan Hall on the edge of town. The Civitan is a service club originally started in 1917 in Birmingham, Alabama. The one here in Almonte started in 1972. We made 650 pies last week, and they're all pre-sold and you know we

could have sold a hundred more. Over tortillera and carrots, Alice told us how the town came to be such a hot spot for Christmas movies. You know years ago I sat on what was called the Community and Economic Development Committee. In those days the movies were just beginning. You know, we're talking seven or eight years ago now. And as a committee, it was determined that, you know, this is a good industry for a town like this. They leave a small footprint, the restaurants are busy, the limited accommodation that we have can be booked, not always, but can be. I mean, it is a bit of an inconvenience, but Elmont has a profile,

and a lot of that is because of those movies. And that charming Main Street, it's not charming by accident. There has been a long-time interest in this community in maintaining the heritage look of Main Street and beyond. You know, lots of communities have the big box stores, you know, the smart centres. We've always discouraged that here. And as a result, we've got these lovingly restored buildings up and down the Main Street,

and they've got specialty shops in them. If you want a gift and you can't find it in Almonte, you're not going to find it anywhere. And of course, we got to talking about Light Up the Night. As Tiffany from the municipality said earlier, it kicks off the holiday season. But it also celebrates local talent that goes all the way back to its origins. Do you know the song Christmas in the Valley? Do you know who Wayne Rostad is? This was that name we asked you to keep in mind a couple minutes ago.

Don't worry, we hadn't heard of him either. Oh, jeepers, you poor Toronto people. That's Wayne's song, Christmas in the Valley. Sleigh bells ringing in the snow Kiss and eat the mistletoe. What's the rest of it? Da da da da da da da da. It's Christmas in the Valley. And soon beneath the Christmas tree We'll gather with our families Love in perfect harmony

It's Christmas in the valley I think the enthusiasm is growing every year. You know that whole philosophy, if you build it, they will come? That's what we've done here. You know, don't kid yourself. We've got the same social problems that every other community in Ontario has. We have, you know, alcohol and drug issues. We've got poverty.

We have people who are not living in ideal circumstances because rates are so high, like all of those things are real. But there are several active churches in town. The Civitan is very active, the Lions Club is very active, the Hub is very active. And the Hub was started to support Lennart County Interval House, which is the women's shelter. So it's, you know, that's the kind of spirit that exists here and the kind of care that exists. Act Three. The Christmas Tree Farm. At this point in the movie, the lead couple will need an excuse to run an errand together, like cutting down a Christmas tree.

So Allie and I, the proverbial career women from the big city, decided we better go find one. You okay? Yeah. It's slippy. It is slippy. When you drive about 10 minutes northwest of Almont, then swing a left, you'll find yourself at Cedar Hill Christmas Tree Farm. Our goal as Christmas tree farmers is to share this little slice of heaven that we have. That's Pam Martin. She and her husband Grant have owned this farm since 2016.

So if you take the tractor-drawn wagon ride out at night to cut a tree in the dark, it is absolutely magical out there under the lights. And unsurprisingly, it makes for an attractive place to film too. It's great for us because they usually film February, March, April, so it doesn't impact our busy retail season, our crazy Christmas season, we call it. Pam has seen a lot of productions come and go since they've owned the farm. And it was called a rooftop Christmas tree. No, sorry. It was called Christmas Scavenger of Ice. Christmas Festival of Ice. Like I say, there's so many of them, I get them confused.

I had to drive a tractor through one scene once. It was kind of funny. Some of the transportation guys were like, well, we'll drive the tractor. And I'm like, nah, I think I'll just drive it myself. Thanks very much. In the movies, the Christmas tree scenes are usually about the lead couple falling deeper in love or getting into some kind of fight, which, which of course they'll resolve in the next scene. They'll do a scene in the tree cutting field where, you know,

she trips and falls into his arms. That's just kind of a thing. Not every movie, but I've seen it more than once, just saying. The scene as it plays out on the farm looks a little different. We have four boys and, you know, when they were young, they were busy and crazy and always great farm kids don't get me wrong but it's just so amazing now to see them all working on the farm on our busy days you know you've got one in this field one over in that field one baling trees here one

driving tractor and it just makes your heart swell. Act four the clock tower. Act 4. The Clock Tower. There's often a point in a Christmas movie, maybe after a neatly resolved conflict, where the lead characters get to go somewhere really special. This is often where they'll learn something crucial about each other, like what happened in their childhood that made them who they are today. Or in our case, what makes a small town, well, tick. Our tour guide to this special place is Jeff Mills. He's done a lot in the community over the years including working as a school bus driver. He actually drove Pam and her siblings to school. And I thought, oh my god, it's such a daunting chore,

because you think if anything happens, this is the future of Cedar Hill. Jeff wanted to show us his version of Almonte. And that meant heading up into the town's clock tower. I call myself an assistant to the assistant clock winder. I think the reason Hallmark comes to town is because of that clock. It's just a beautiful, beautiful view coming up Mill Street to see this historic building. So are you ready? 76 steps. Okay. You can hear the pendulum. Can you hear it?

It's fun, Jeff, seeing you with your iPhone watch clock and the old clock. It's my Fitbit watch that was recording how many steps I just made to get up here. The three of us went up into this tiny room that looked almost like a cabin in a ship. Wood-clad walls with two windows looking out toward the river. This is a great Almont trivia. The architect was actually Thomas Fuller. He was the architect of the Parliament buildings. There was almost no room to move because in the centre of the room was the clock mechanism. The clock mechanism itself is probably about 16 inches wide by probably three feet long,

and it's on a wooden stand. There are all kinds of pulleys and gears, but up above, there's more stairs. You can see the actual clock faces. There's four clock faces, of course, on each of the sides of the building. So I'll just open the door here, come aside. I climbed up another wooden ladder and poked my head up into the highest point of the tower. On each of the four walls was a white clock face,

probably at least six feet wide, with a bare bulb behind it. They look like four big full moons. The outside of the clock tower has been in a lot of the Christmas movies we've been talking about. But I don't think they got to see this. Okay, come around. When the clock struck three, Ali had a job to do. We're doing it manually. So you're going to lift it off.

Don't lift it too far or it's liable to fall that way and then we're in trouble. So okay that's far enough. Let it go. Yeah. Far enough. Okay. That was so cool. The thing about an old school clock is that it's subject to human error. Did this stop? What's that? Did the clock stop? What? When I was moving from over by the window, I must have stopped the pendulum. I just realized it got too quiet.

And that's how easy it is to start time again. Jeff is a bit of a fixture in Almonte, and he seems to love Christmas and this town even more than the movie industry does. I can remember one Christmas Christmas walking down our road, the sixth concession, and the moon was shining and there were like six deer and they all ran off at the same time across this snowy field. And I thought, you know, I feel that I'm at peace here. And I think that if you were to look at the biblical side of Christmas and the concept of finding a place you know Mary and Joseph in a

stable it's that knowing that you are safe and that others around you who are safe it's really important to not forget those people that are less fortunate and not just being charitable and generous at Christmas, but how can we build a town that truly lives into its motto of being a friendly town? That's welcoming for all. You have to be thinking that way all the time. And it's hard because lots of people struggle. Lots of people really struggle with having an affordable place to live and a safe place to live. That's tough. It was getting late, but on our way to light up the night, we ran into one more person, Jeff's tenant, Charlene Millen.

She's hilarious. I call her the Queen of Mill Street. Obviously, we had to meet the Queen of Mill Street. And it's going to be so hard tonight for my friend and I to have to, you know, walk across the street and walk a half a block up to see Light Up the Night. Oh, it's not difficult sounding. Act 5, Light Up the Night. These made-for-TV movies all have a big holiday event that everyone in town looks forward to all year. After hearing so much about it,

we got to see the real thing. The stage was all lit up. The streets were packed with thousands of people. Stores had twinkling Christmas lights in their windows. Wreaths hung from telephone wires. A parking lot was converted into a place where people could come get food, warm up by a bonfire, and of course... You guys want to get some hot cocoa or something? Yeah. All right, let's go get some hot chocolate. The local Boy Scouts were serving it up.

Do you want chocolate? Thank you. It's a little bit busy. In the short time we were in Almonte, we heard a lot about what makes the community so special. Like from Emily of Cheerfully Made. I can't walk home in the rain and not get picked up. Or Alice, who fed us tortier at the Almonte Civitan Club.

The council does good things for this community. They're very approachable and they function. They function. I mean, I often think, well, it would be nice to live somewhere where it was a little bit warmer come January, February. But no, I'm not prepared when push comes to shove to actually do anything about that. Just put another log in the fireplace and sit down, you know.

On screen, Almont plays the role of Anywhere USA. Because of Hallmark and because of all of this stuff, and I hate to think of my town as a theme park, but it's that idea that people want to come here. That's Jeff again, the assistant to the assistant clockwinder. Our motto in this town is Almonte and friendly Mississippi mills. And it's important to not just have that, but live into that. So one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite Christmas movies is the part in Elf where the only way that Christmas can be saved is by getting enough people to sing along. Sing it for me.

We came to Almont to see if the spirit of the season was as alive in real life as it is in the movies. As the Almonte Pipe Band took the stage, with only their practice pipes so as not to ruin the bagpipes in the cold, the people around us started to sing along. We were so cold standing out there in the crowd. Our toes felt like they were about to fall off. So I am hitting peak knowing that I have toes. And so we will have to go. But looking around, we could see how happy everyone was.

Just being together, singing along with the pipe band. There's movie holiday magic that you can make with tinsel and fake snow. But I think that if you want to find real holiday magic on the coldest, longest nights of the year, you have to look for places where people come together and make the magic themselves. That's it for today. The Decibel is hosted by Manika Raman-Wilms. Our producers are Madeline White, Ali Graham, and me, Michal Stein. Ali Graham mixed and sound designed this episode. David Crosby edits the show.

Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Matt Frainer is our managing editor. We'll see you next week.