This time of year, the Silas W. Robbins House is all done up for Christmas. The 1873 Second Empire Victorian in Wethersfield is covered with tinsel, wreaths, ornaments – there are even life-size nutcrackers. It’s a picture-perfect Christmas scene, like something out of a Hallmark movie.
In fact, it feels like a particular Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. The Robbins House was the filming location for 2018’s “Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane.”
That’s how the house ended up on the new Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail. It’s a tourism push by the state, a self-guided tour of taverns and town squares and more, where nearly two dozen Christmas pictures have been filmed over the last decade.
“People love Christmas movies – I love Christmas movies,” said Ellen Woolf, brand director for the state of Connecticut and the mastermind behind the trail.
“You can just pick a movie and watch it with a steaming cup of hot cocoa, à la Hallmark style, and then step into the shoes of your favorite actors and relive those special scenes from the movies, right here in Connecticut,” Woolf said.
Mapping holiday movie magic
There are plenty of options if you want to take Woolf’s suggestion. There’s Lifetime’s “A Very Merry Toy Store” from 2017 – you can visit Amato’s Toy and Hobby in Middletown to feel like you’re in the film. Or Universal’s 2019 picture “My Adventures With Santa” – you can pick up a tree at Kogut’s Hemlock Hill Tree Farm in Meriden, where the family in that movie gets their tree. And if you love Hallmark’s 2023 movie “Mystic Christmas,” head on down to – you guessed it – the charming seaport village of Mystic.
Woolf says the trail is a way to celebrate a holiday film industry that’s brought millions of dollars to Connecticut’s economy, as well as a way to build the state’s brand.
“With this trail and things like it, people are talking about us now, talking about Connecticut in a whole new light,” Woolf says. “With excitement, with interest, and with fun.”
Of course, the trail is also meant to boost business. Ivana Marrero, head of the Wethersfield Chamber of Commerce, attended the town’s tree-lighting event dressed as the Grinch.
She said people are coming to Wethersfield – and spending money – because of the trail.
“They want to see the businesses, so that when they’re watching, they can say, ‘Oh my God, I remember that business in that movie,’” Marrero says. “It makes them feel special. It’s like going to Hollywood, California, but instead you’re going to Wethersfield, Connecticut.”
Sharing Connecticut traditions
At the Robbins House, Olga Cherkasova described Christmas in Wethersfield as “something out of a storybook.” She owns the house and runs it as a bed and breakfast.
Cherkasova said being on the movie trail is good for business, but for her it’s about more than that.
“It’s for the community to be part of something bigger,” Cherkasova says. “Something bigger about preserving history, bringing more people to Connecticut because there is a lot to see. It’s more than commerce. It’s more than business. It’s a feeling that Old Wethersfield brings. It’s tradition.”
Cherkasova said guests have booked stays around Christmastime because of the trail. She says the property – and Wethersfield – are perfect around the holidays.
“It’s really quiet here. It’s different,” she tells this reporter. “We have a lot of guests from the city, from New Jersey. They are running away from their, you know, everyday routine, from the noises that brings, that life.” Sound like a Hallmark movie? Cherkasova laughs and nods.
“It’s an escape,” she said.
