One of America’s Very Best Christmas Destinations is a Small Idaho Town

Whether it be Hallmark, GAC or even Lifetime, we’re dying to know why more Christmas movies aren’t set in Idaho’s picturesque and cozy small towns.

So many of them are filled with quaint shops, stunning mountain views and adorable holiday celebrations that we couldn’t picture a better place for a big-city heroine to find love with a kind-hearted, small town Idaho hunk. 

READ MORE: Cute Idaho Town Named One of Best for Main Street Shopping in USA

To the best of our knowledge, only one of these Christmas movies was actually shot in Idaho. GAC, Hallmark’s Christmas rival, aired a movie called A Match Made at Christmas a few years ago. IMDB explains a strangely familiar plot line: 

“Romantic, small-town girl Holly and realist, career-driven Chris aren't a likely pair, but when "matched" together by Holly's all-knowing great-aunt, they don't have much of a choice.”

Parts of the movie were shot at the Collective Kitchen, Blackwell Hotel, Castaway Fly Fishing Shop and Fort Sherman Chapel in Coeur d’Alene. 

Hallmark’s 2023 film Checkin’ It Twice follows Ashley, a commercial real estate broker in the Big Apple and Scott, the son of a legendary NHL star who found himself signed to a minor league team in…Idaho Falls. Even though that movie was set in Idaho, it was actually shot in British Columbia. 

One Idaho City That SHOULD Be Featured in a Christmas Movie

Reader's Digest recently released a roundup of the BEST Christmas Cities in America and while the creators of these Christmas movies seem to ignore Idaho, the magazine did not! Scroll down far enough and you’ll see that Sun Valley made the list. 

They were completely enamored with all the cute, Christmas-y events happening in the Wood River Valley. We’re talking about everything from wreath making events and Christmas cookie decorating parties to Christmas themed pub crawls, tree lightings and pub crawls. But Christmas in Sun Valley wouldn’t be Christmas in Sun Valley without their incredible Christmas Eve Ice Show. 

It’s just part of an entire evening of fun that also includes a Torchlight parade where skiers shred down Dollar Mountain with torches in their hands, fireworks and free cookies and cocoa.