5 North Carolina Small Towns Where Christmas Movies Keep Getting Filmed

A wooden horse named Morris has stood on Trade Street in Tryon since 1928. In December 2020, a film crew pointed a camera at him while a parade marched past. That horse, and a handful of Main Streets like it, have quietly moonlighted as Hallmark backdrops. Not Wilmington, the state’s big-screen workhorse — the places with one blinking stoplight and one star turn. These are the North Carolina towns that got their fifteen minutes under studio string lights. You can walk every one of them. Bring a thermos.

5. Tryon: Where Morris the Horse Got His Hallmark Close-Up

Christmas at the Grey Horse Inn (2021) kept the town’s real name, which almost never happens. Most Hallmark towns get rechristened into some fictional hamlet. Tryon stayed Tryon, and the movie follows a big-city woman who falls for the place — roughly what happens to anyone who parks on Trade Street for an afternoon.

They shot the parade scene on December 18, 2020, right in front of Morris. That made it the town’s second Christmas parade of the year, with locals turning out as extras in their own downtown. Crews also filmed inside The Nest Artisan Market on Trade Street.

Some version of Morris has stood in downtown Tryon since 1928. Walk right up to him. No ticket, no line.

History Corner: Morris the Horse has been Tryon’s mascot for the better part of a century. The town leans so hard into the horse theme that even the movie worked a grey horse into the title. Coincidence? In Tryon, probably not.

4. Hendersonville: The Train Depot That Snuck Into a Biltmore Movie

Most of A Biltmore Christmas (2023) was shot at the Biltmore Estate over in Asheville, where the budget clearly went. But one scene needed a depot, and Hendersonville’s Historic Train Depot got the call.

The city council approved closing Maple Street on Friday, January 27, 2023, so the crew could film. Local Hallmark fans came out to watch a January street stand in for December — the kind of thing you only get to see in a small town. The movie stars Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha.

Here’s the practical part: the depot is about a half-hour drive from a Biltmore holiday day. Do the estate, then drift into Hendersonville for the depot and a quieter Main Street.

Try This: Pair a Biltmore Christmas visit (reservations go fast in December) with an afternoon on Hendersonville’s Main Street. You get the grand estate and the depot cameo in one loop, with better parking on the Hendersonville end.

3. Monroe: A New York Christmas Story Filmed in the Charlotte Suburbs

A Christmas Love Story (2019) is set in New York City and stars Kristin Chenoweth as a former Broadway star turned youth choir director. So naturally they filmed chunks of it in Union County.

Monroe was one of the locations, alongside Charlotte and Gastonia. Our research doesn’t pin down the exact spots in Monroe, so we won’t pretend to send you to a specific corner. Here’s what we can tell you — it sits in the Charlotte region, which makes it an easy add to a city-based holiday-movie drive.

Movie towns standing in for Manhattan is an old Hollywood trick. Snow’s cheap when you truck it in, and the extras actually smile at you.

2. Kings Mountain: The Kids-vs-City-Hall Christmas Movie

Not every Christmas movie is a romance. Finding Christmas (2019), directed by David W. Richardson, follows a girl named Amanda and her friends as they take on City Hall to remind their town what Christmas actually means. Kids versus bureaucracy. Underdog stuff, and a nice change of pace from the usual meet-cute formula.

Kings Mountain was one of the filming locations, along with Gastonia and nearby Bessemer City. The town itself is small and walkable, which is exactly why it photographs like a Christmas card.

One warning worth heeding: there’s a different 2013 movie called Finding Christmas that was shot in Ohio. Wrong film, wrong state. The one you want is the 2019 version with the North Carolina DNA.

Did You Know: Two movies can share the exact same title and have nothing to do with each other. Streaming services mix them up constantly, so check the year and the director before you settle in with cocoa.

1. Bessemer City: The Finding Christmas Town Next Door

Bessemer City rounds out the Finding Christmas (2019) trio, sharing credits with Kings Mountain and Gastonia. It’s one of the smaller names on this list — honestly, the kind of place you’d drive through without ever knowing a camera rolled there.

The two towns sit right next to each other along the Gaston–Cleveland county line, so you can knock out both in a single afternoon loop. Our sources didn’t document the specific storefronts used, and we’d rather say that plainly than send you chasing a spot that may not exist.

Treat it as a slow drive, not a scavenger hunt. The best small-town main streets reward you for not being in a rush.

Why It Works: Studios love towns like these because the buildings read as timeless and the streets are easy to control. Close one block, truck in some snow, and a 2019 January morning becomes anybody’s Christmas Eve. The place does half the work for free.

Please note that some of the imagery in this article were created with the aid of AI image generators.