The Christmas Capital: Hallmark and Lifetime debut more than fifty Christmas films each year and Utah has become the place to make them.

• Author: Griffin, Bile

I'm walking through the streets of New York, snow swirling around me as a light fog settles on the city. It's beautiful the way the streets are lit for the Christmas season, giving passersby a holiday glow as they hurry to their next destination. Then someone curses.

"I bet they're filming another Hallmark Christmas movie," she says, "I watch those [expletives] every year and they're always filmed in Salt Lake City."

She's right. I am not in New York City. I'm on the set of "Christmas Wonderland", a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie filmed on Exchange Place-one of Salt Lake City's most New York-esque alleyways. And it is most certainly not December, it's a blustery October day--the snow merely the glittery remains of a special effects budget.

It all started several months ago when I ran into the location director for Curiously Strong Productions. She was filming a Hallmark Christmas film, she told me, and needed to feed her hungry crew. I gushed, telling her all about my deep affection for the network's annual Christmas special.

It's true. I'm one of those "Hallmark people." Addicted to hopelessly romantic storylines involving big city dreams, small town joys, a sweet little inn decorated for the holidays, the occasional royal prince, and actors you'd probably recognize from something you watched in your childhood. It really is a winning formula.

CHRISTMAS IS BOOMING

Apparently, Hallmark thinks so too. Since 2001, the network has increasingly upped their investment in Countdown to Christmas, the company's annual Christmas special. This year, Countdown to Christmas will debut 37 new Christmas movies. That's up from the 33 they made in 2017, the 28 they made in 2016, the 21 they made in 2015, and the 12 they made in 2014.

It shouldn't work. For starters, there's the fact that these films are decidedly low budget. Every Hallmark Christmas movie is filmed with a less than $2 million budget, and is filmed in under three weeks time. Compare that to the average family film which costs between $100-150 million to make, and takes between six to eight weeks to shoot.

Then there's the fact that most networks have gone the way of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu to distribute their content. Not so with Hallmark. Despite the fact that an estimated 22 million Americans "cut the cord" in 2017, Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas is sticking with cable. In fact, it's the only place you can watch their films.

That means every December, despite...