by Vanessa Dewson
Holiday movie classics will always be welcome treats to watch again year after year. They give us the same warm and fuzzy feeling as a hot cup of cocoa. The newer holiday movies on Hallmark and Lifetime might be predictable and a tad corny, but there’s no denying their popularity. And it turns out that Ottawa, Canada, and its surrounding villages, have just the right stuff to make Christmas movie magic. Christmas movies are a booming business here and a great place for movie buffs to visit.
On this year’s holiday movie lineup for Lifetime, four have been shot in and around Ottawa: Maps and Mistletoes, Under the Christmas Tree, Candy Cane Candidate, and A Christmas Village Romance. Also shot in Ottawa is Hallmark’s Boyfriends of Christmas Past which airs on November 23rd (check their website if you’re reading this after that date for additional airings).
With the number of productions increasing exponentially in the last 20 years, Ottawa has become a trusted go-to filming location. It’s a big enough city to double as any major metropolis for urban scenes while also having beautiful older buildings, green spaces, and quaint villages a stone’s throw away. There is now a plan to start building a large sound stage in 2022.
A quick look at the Ottawa Film Office’s handy Christmas Movies Filming Locations reveals close to 70 locations marked with snowflakes. Click on one and you’ll see which holiday movie was filmed there, when, and who produced it. For example, click on Jeanne d’Arc Court in Ottawa’s trendy Byward Market and you’ll see that A Chestnut Christmas (Oprah Winter Network, 2021) and Mistletoe and Menorahs (Lifetime, 2018) were filmed there.
Hallmark and Lifetime seem to be neck and neck with the most productions so chances are if you’ve tuned in to one of their yearly holiday movie marathons you’ve seen parts of Ottawa. Of the 28 feature-length films to have been shot in and around Ottawa this year alone, 11 are Christmas movies. including Hallmark’s Christmas CEO which was filmed earlier this year in Ottawa and Almonte, an old textile mill town just less than a half-hour west of Ottawa.
Almonte
Almonte has become a stand-in for that charming small town that is a key component to a feel-good Christmas movie. You’d think one of the reasons to film this far north is a guarantee of snow, but many crews don’t wait for the white stuff. When I visited Almonte in September, there were already film trucks on Mill Street and a shop decorated for the holidays before the leaves had even fallen off the trees.
All of this Hollywood attention has also helped Almonte become a popular year-round tourist destination with its great shops, restaurants, and charming inns. And for you sports fans, it’s also the birthplace of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. His bronze statue is in the heart of the historic center. One look at the beautiful buildings surrounding it make it obvious why Almonte is the perfect town for romance, and Hollywood has noticed.
Where to Stay
For a real treat, stay at Ottawa’s beautiful Fairmont Chateau Laurier, next to Parliament Hill on one side and the trendy Market area on the other where most of the city’s best restaurants can be found. Fairmont hotels have provided film locations since 1921, when the silent film Kipps was shot, in part, at The Savoy. More recently, it was a location in the 2018 Hallmark movie Christmas Carousel.
In Almonte, the elegant Menzies House B&B and the Almonte Riverside Inn boutique hotel are across the street from each other, right on the river, and an easy walk across the bridge to the historic part of town.
