Now that Halloween is in the rear view and we’re almost a week into November, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Okay, that’s not quite true yet, but that’s not stopping advertisers, retailers, radio stations, and the like from forcing the holiday spirit upon us already. Of course, plenty of television networks are also getting in on the Christmas messaging in a big way.
In recent years, Wisconsin has served as the setting for the occasional Hallmark holiday original. Though that doesn’t appear to be the case this particular yuletide season, the Great American Family network—a channel that now employs Candace Cameron Bure and literally runs bible verses during commercial breaks, opposed to Hallmark’s only implicit Christianity—recently released a new film in its “Great American Christmas” series that’s both filmed and set in Wisconsin. More specifically, this pastry-related holiday romance movie takes place in picturesque Door County.
A Wisconsin Christmas Pie—originally called A Cherry Pie Christmas before the network decided to give it a bit of state-specific love—premiered on the channel on October 11. DON’T stop us if you’ve heard this before (because we’re pretty sure you have), but the movie finds a big city baker named Emma returning to her rural hometown for the holidays, only to get swept up in the small town charm and a rekindling a romance with her high school sweetheart…who is, as mandated by script law, a single father doing the best he can following the death of his partner.
Yes, you’ve seen this countless times before, but we’re willing to bet you’ve never seen this predictable plot play out in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. And the location is far from hidden over the course of the film. In fact, the Wisconsin tourist hub is actually quite integral in the movie’s cherry pie-centric plot and highlighted in a variety of ways. If you can figure out how to find the Great American Family channel (we just recorded it on YouTube TV), we recommend checking this out. In the meantime, here are some of the best Door County and Wisconsin things we noticed during our viewing of A Wisconsin Christmas Pie.
Door County is the true star of the film
Typically, these TV holiday movies are set in anywhere USA and filmed at a studio. If a specific location is mentioned, it’s pretty rare that anything is actually filmed in that place itself, aside from stock exterior shots. Well, that is not the case here in A Wisconsin Christmas Pie. Our two leads actually explore Door County in one of the region’s famed trolleys.
They hit up landmarks like Eagle Tower in Fish Creek and Anderson Dock in Ephraim. Other scenes were filmed in actual book stores, cafes, cheese shops, and farms spread throughout Sturgeon Bay, Egg Harbor, and other Door County locales. The local connection is so ubiquitous that Destination Door County has actually put together a self-guided tour for people who want to visit some of the locales featured in the flick.
There’s a whole scene where they just talk about cheese
Emma’s childhood friend is now something of a “big cheese” in the local dairy scene. She’s so “Gouda” at her job (the character’s pun, not ours!), she offers to help Emma select the perfect Renard’s cheese to incorporate into the pie she’s planning to bake for the annual cherry pie bake-off…which Emma apparently needs to win in order to drum up enough press to save her family’s cherry orchard, by the way. Anyway, they spend about three entire minutes of the movie talking about and sampling Wisconsin-made cheese.
There are local product placements aplenty
In addition to the screen time Renard’s gets in the film, A Cherry Pie Christmas also features some placements of other beloved Wisconsin brands. Though none are as heavy-handed as the Renard’s plug (aside from Door County Coffee maybe), eagle eye viewers will notice two guys holding bottles of New Glarus’ Spotted Cow in one scene, a container of Cedar Crest Ice Cream on the table during one of the (honestly) seven scenes involving pie, and bottles of Lutenbach’s wine on hand as the family celebrates a certain pie-related achievement at the film’s conclusion.
There’s a fish boil
Is it possible to reference Door County without showing a fish boil? We’ll have to get back to you on that because A Wisconsin Christmas Pie has a scene where the town gathers for “Santa’s Holiday Fish Boil” that is said to take place along the shore every year. You’d think that it being a long-running event wouldn’t require an exhaustive explanation about what a fish boil is, but the male lead provides one anyway…just in case someone looking on (or tuning in) doesn’t know the nuances of this Door County tradition.
Yep, there’s a Green Bay Packer in this
Those who make it to the movie’s final 15 minutes will be rewarded with a cameo from Packers all-time leading rusher Ahman Green, who serves as one of the judges of the “Annual Door County Christmas Cherry Pie Bake-Off.” After he’s introduced, he leads the pie contest onlookers (including one donning a cheesehead) in a “Go Pack Go!” chant. Get that bag, Ahman!
Come for the cozy-yet-predictable holiday romance, stay for the Wisconsin references, and watch A Wisconsin Christmas Pie on the Great American Family channel or other streaming platforms if you want to find out whether Emma wins the big pie contest (and unexpectedly finds love/saves her family’s cherry orchard in the process).