About 80% of Hallmark Channel’s holiday movies are filmed in Utah. Yes, that’s right—the “Vermont Christmas county” where everyone is a plucky baker? That’s Midway, Utah, population 5,000. They just spray-paint the mountains white and pretend the nearest Starbucks is a co-op.
The Holiday Filming Locations in England & USA: FULL List + Map!
One of their most “authentic” towns, Park City, stood in for six different fictional villages in 2026 alone. The same Main Street was “Vermont” in one scene and “Maine” in the next—they just swapped out the fake store signs between takes. Talk about a town with multiple personalities.
The Polar Express: Not a Real Train (But Close)
If you think you can ride the Polar Express, you sort of can. The movie used motion-capture animation based on a real steam locomotive—the Pere Marquette 1225, which still runs in Michigan. The film’s destination? A strike of conceptual magic: the North Pole was entirely computer-generated, but the train’s interior was built on a soundstage in California.
The truly wild part? The director, Robert Zemeckis, made the actors wear those creepy dot-covered suits while pretending to drink hot chocolate that wasn’t there. Tom Hanks, who played five roles, basically spent a year acting against thin air. He earned every single dollar. And probably a hot chocolate fund.
