GULFPORT, Miss. (GULF COAST WEEKEND) - Having trouble deciding which romantic Christmas movie to watch this holiday season? Why not pick one set right here in Mississippi?
What used to just be the domain of the Hallmark Channel seems to have spread to almost every network and streaming service available. That makes it easier than ever to fall down the holiday themed romantic movie rabbit hole. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the choices. Instead, we can narrow it down to two fun holiday movies filmed in the Magnolia State.
(Mississippi connection side note: Did you see the new Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie on Netfilx? Did you know... Lohan’s handsome co-star in Falling for Christmas, Chord Overstreet, is the son of GRAMMY winning country musician and songwriter Paul Overstreet, who grew up in Vancleave? Of course you did.)
In 2017, Lifetime gave us Christmas in Mississippi which follows photographer Holly Logan as she returns to her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi for Christmas. As described by Lifetime, “the town is resurrecting their traditional holiday light show for the first time since a terrible hurricane struck five years earlier. Holly volunteers to pitch in, but soon has second thoughts when she discovers the festival is run by her high school sweetheart, Mike. Now Holly must spend the next few days with the man who broke her heart. With the help of Caroline, her match-making mother and Mr. Kriss, the kind man who will play Santa in the town’s celebration, Holly begins to fall in love with her hometown, and Mike, all over again.”
If you’re from Gulfport and you haven’t seen this movie, stop what you’re doing and watch it right now. Lifetime makes it easy and available for free online>> https://play.mylifetime.com/movies/christmas-in-mississippi/full-movie
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It even features the song “Mississippi Christmas,” written and performed by Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes!
And if you’d like to visit the locations featured in the movie, like the Gulfport Harbor Lights Winter Festival or Fishbone Alley, Coastal Mississippi has mapped out a Christmas in Mississippi Film Trail for you to discover more>> https://www.gulfcoast.org/blog/post/christmas-in-mississippi-film-trail/
“But I’m not from the coast,” you say? Well, the Hallmark Channel has a small town Mississippi movie that takes place in Natchez and features all the beauty of that historic, riverside city.
2021′s Every Time A Bell Rings is about three sisters who reunite in their hometown of Natchez after the passing of their father. Turns out, dad planned one last scavenger hunt for them to find the family’s wooden wishing bell – an annual holiday tradition. “As they search for clues their bond is rekindled and they find hope and healing,” reads the movie’s description on https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmysteries.com/every-time-a-bell-rings
Both of these Mississippi Christmas stories have another common thread in producer Daniel Lewis of Evergreen Films. The LSU grad actually has a long history of making movies set in Louisiana and Mississippi. Mississippi Gulf Coast residents might remember one of his projects, Mississippi River Sharks, which did some filming in Ocean Springs. (Sharks and Christmas movies seem to be his specialty, which culminated in 2018′s Santa Jaws.)
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Before Every Time A Bell Rings premiered in 2021, Lewis told The Natchez Democrat he and his crew were already making plans to film another Christmas movie in Natchez.
READ MORE: Destination Natchez: How a Mississippi city could become the Hollywood of the South
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