In case you somehow missed the news last week, there’s a new Hallmark Channel movie that’s set right here in Milwaukee. Yes, a brand new nostalgia-laden, time-hopping holiday flick called A ’90s Christmas finds a work-obsessed Chicago lawyer named Lucy being taken back to her native Milwaukee in the year 1999 by a wise-cracking rideshare driver with mystical powers in order to fix her past missteps with love and other interpersonal relationships
By Hallmark standards, it’s actually pretty darn good. The Back To The Future-nodding “spacetime continuum” plot is a refreshing angle for the network, both leads—star Eva Bourne and love interest Matt (played by Days Of Our Lives regular Chandler Massey)—are charming, there are two gay characters, there are some legitimately touching scenes that confront themes of grief and missed opportunities, and it has some admittedly funny era-specific references to stuff like Lou Bega and those “Wassup?!” Budweiser commercials.
Most importantly, A ’90s Christmas also has a few references to both Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole. Though the movie was not filmed in Milwaukee, the fact the city is the setting for the film is shown in a handful of ways. As you stock up on hot cocoa and prepare to watch the next airing on Hallmark Channel (Wednesday, December 11 at 5 p.m., by the way), here’s a guide to all the Milwaukee and Wisconsin things we noticed in our viewing of A ’90s Christmas.
1. There’s apparently a huge bridge that runs directly from Chicago to Milwaukee
When Lucy falls asleep in the backseat of magic rideshare genie lady Grace’s car, they travel over a mystical bridge that takes them from the Windy City to Milwaukee (where Lucy says she hasn’t been “in years.”). A snowstorm on I-94 is mentioned over the car radio, which maybe prompted the supernatural detour. For the record, an otherworldly bridge connecting Chicago and Milwaukee is a DOT project we’d actually support.
2. The Milwaukee Mirror newspaper
Sadly, one local publication couldn’t survive into the 21st century. Okay, okay…so the Milwaukee Mirror isn’t a real newspaper, but the front page of this fictional periodical that Lucy looks at to confirm her trip through time does have some actual local references. Beyond saying the word “Milwaukee” a bunch, the front page also mentions the Marcus Center and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. There’s even mention of conductor Andrew Sewell, who was a former MSO conductor and is currently Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s music director. Not bad in terms of details for a paper with only two or three seconds of screen time!
3. City Exterior Part One
To be honest, we don’t recognize this exterior as a Milwaukee location on sight alone. It very well could be, though. Maybe someone in the comments recognizes this vantage point of the city?
4. City Exterior Part Two
Now THIS one is absolutely an exterior/establishing shot of Milwaukee. Not to be “that guy,” but the skyline looked a little bit different than this in 1999. We’ll forgive the inclusion of the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons because at least it’s actual footage of Milwaukee.
5. This website
Much like the Milwaukee Mirror, we have to give it up for the attention to detail the props department put into something that got mere moments of screen time. When trying to figure out a tree branch-related property line dispute between neighbors, Lucy tells another character to “Google it.” Of course, that leads to confusion since the search engine that’s now a worldwide juggernaut was only in its infancy back in ’99. Google or not, logging onto the internet (terrible dial-up sounds and all!) eventually brought them to a clear answer to their question at a website called WisconsinExplained.net. We checked and the site isn’t real, but it does have some copy related to the (also fake) “Wisconsin Vegetation Vigilance Code of 1974” that ultimately solved their dispute. Also, shoutout to whomever created “Wisconey,” the Clippy-like “guiding star through the wonderful world of state by-laws.”
6. Reindeer Games
Mitten Fest? To quote a term popularized by a ’90s film, “AS IF!” In the A ’90s Christmas universe, Milwaukee had a popular winter festival called Reindeer Games back in 1999. Come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t actually very popular, since only the same four teams seemed to compete in every event. Regardless, we’re going to start this event FOR REAL in 2025…right after we launch WisconsinExplained.net. Read all about it in the Milwaukee Mirror.
7. Milwaukee Shakespeare Company
There’s not a photo to go with this, but Matt mentions at one point that he wants to try out for the “Milwaukee Shakespeare Company.” Milwaukee Shakespeare didn’t actually launch until the following year (though maybe Matt heard it was coming soon?) and it ran for nine seasons until ending in 2008.
8. Wisconsin license plate!
This one is kind of going out with a whimper, but the last chronological Wisconsin thing we saw in this movie comes when Lucy’s best friend arrives at her house. As she laughingly greets Lucy with her recurring “Wassup?!” salutation, the friend strolls past a van with Wisconsin plates. Like we said, it’s not super interesting, but it still counts.