Experience Buffalo’s Winter Holiday Hollywood Movie Magic
Hallmark’s movie crews filmed here. Get into the silver screen’s holiday spirit here.
Buffalo aced the screen test – with a snow flecked Christmas twist. Hollywood filmmakers have long been coming here for the movie-ready, time-capsule streetscapes, parks, parkways and buildings with by-gone Gilded Age glamour. Now they’re ingredients for a new role: Buffalo is the place for a picture-perfect winter holiday flick. Two Hallmark Christmas movies shot in Buffalo debut this holiday season on the Hallmark Channel, which started its holiday countdown, with new movies debuting on the weekends ahead. “A Newport Christmas” premiers 8 p.m., Nov. 2. and “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story,” premiers 8 p.m, Saturday. Nov. 22.
“The locations were amazing,” said Andrew Gernhard, who produced both movies. He would like to come back and make a few here every year. “People love Christmas movies … The Christmas movie has become a phenomenon,” he said. “Every year there’s more and more … People just gobble them up.”
Follow the silver screen’s holiday footsteps. Take a trip through iconic local stops that became Hallmark backdrops. Find real life movie magic in old neighborhoods with tall trees and grand houses, and within cozy taverns with authentic modern-era vibes.
When people think “traditional Christmas,” they think of an old-fashioned New England town, said Gernhard. A lot of local spots have that look – from old homes and small streets to old-fashioned movie theaters and a five and dime store, like East Aurora’s Vidler’s 5 & 10.
“Christmas is all about fond memories of when you were a kid or a teen and you had your family around,” said Gernhard. “That’s what people are keying in on in these Christmas movies. The romance, the nostalgia of what Christmas is or was.”
There was a challenge shooting winter scenes during a Buffalo spring, however. Hollywood’s visual magic — and dustings of fake snow – was key. “We Christmas-ified everything,” Gernhard said.
