Okanagan Christmas film locations easy to locate but tough to find on screen

For locals like December Jewels of Penticton, the best part of curling up on the couch at Christmas for holiday rom-coms on TV is that many are shot in the Okanagan.

“It makes me want to watch it. I love seeing the local landscape, local landmarks and even, sometimes, people you know in the background,” Jewels said.

Networks like Hallmark and Lifetime have been shooting straight-to-TV movies in the Okanagan for years. Though the region never plays itself, locals can often spot familiar scenery, perhaps spotting downtown Kelowna within a small town Christmas love story.

“I like the cheesy love stories. Who doesn’t?” Jewels said. “Boy falls in love with girl, girl falls in love with boy, then there’s a problem and everything falls apart. Then, in the end, they find their way back to each other… Isn’t that everybody’s dream?”

Okanagan film commissioner Jon Summerland said the region has established itself as a go-to destination for holiday flicks, often backed by American networks, with local areas portrayed as small town America.

“You get away from your stressed life. They’re about the picture-perfect holiday aesthetic… you do not feel bad, and that’s what they’re about,” Summerland said.

For fans of the holiday TV tradition, Tourism Kelowna is promoting a tour of local film spots, featuring local businesses like Pulp Fiction, the Lindon House and Olive and Elle, which have been featured in Hallmark movies over the past few years.

Finding a way to watch them might prove difficult.

From a search of the movie database IMDB, 19 Kelowna-based holiday movies could be found from the past few years. Just one, Our Holiday Story, appears to be on the W Network schedule of Hallmark movies this month. It isn’t available for streaming.

Ten of them are available on streaming platforms like Prime, Netflix or Crave. Two of the movies on Crave, however, are only available in French.

A Corus Entertainment spokesperson, which owns W Network, said no Okanagan-based films premiered on this year’s Christmas movie schedule and none are available on its streaming platform StackTV, where most Hallmark movies are available in Canada.

Summerland said the TV movies frequently move through the rotation, with new movies premiering each year. Not only have there been more than the 19 found on IMDB shot over the years, but there will be more released in the coming years with the film industry establishing a foothold in the Okanagan.

For fans like Jewels, knowing they’re shot locally is a bonus, but she’ll still enjoy them each year to boost her Christmas spirit.

“The romantic person inside every one of us gets a moment to live out their secret dream,” she said. “It’s about feeling good and that’s what we try to do at Christmas.”

They’re less commonly shot in Kamloops, but Netflix did recently release My Secret Santa, which was split between locations in the city and at Sun Peaks.

It was released to the streaming platform earlier this month, but the mountain resort is also hosting a screening at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel on Dec. 14.

More information about the screening can be found online here.