It may only be the very beginning of November, but I am already — dare I admit it — decorated completely for Christmas. My (artificial, of course) trees are up, the stockings are hung and my collection of nutcrackers are standing at the ready.  My holiday dishes are in the cabinets, the December countdown calendar is displayed and my ‘letters to Santa’ stocking sits patiently waiting for someone to send in a holiday hopeful request.
No. I am not decorated early because this year has just been an extremely difficult time and I need some holiday cheer to brighten my mood. Nor am I decorated early because I find myself homebound, closets all organized, and with nothing else to do. I am decorated early because this year, I am hosting a movie premier of the Hallmark holiday movie that I had an up-close-and-personal perspective on during filming.
It was hard not to drive by the Inn at Woodstock Hill this summer and notice the snow-covered trees, driveway and grass during the 90-plus degree weather.  Plus, if you read any of the local newspapers or listened to the local radio station, you heard that Hallmark was, indeed, filming a holiday movie at several ‘local spots’.  In addition to being one of those ‘local spots’, we also had our rooms filled with actors and producers and COVID-safety compliance officers, all needing food and drinks and ice and laundry and package deliveries and, well, anything else you could think of that you would need when you live somewhere temporarily for a month.  At a time when the rest of the nation was just beginning to emerge from lockdowns, we were, simply put, busier than ever, getting an insider’s glimpse into how the magic of movie making happens.
Although the work which was required to do a good job was rather intense, so, too, was the experience as very few people outside of the movie industry, get to see firsthand what a rolling camera actually looks like, or an editing machine, or a costume trailer or what color a Broadway star’s pajamas are!  
So, despite the hard work and long hours, the experience was totally and unequivocally, pretty awesome!  And as August turned into September and the last of the fake snow was swept away, the movie buzz, locally, turned into when the big premier would be on the Hallmark channel, resulting in One Royal Holiday, the Christmas movie filmed in our beloved little Quiet Corner, making its ‘Countdown to Christmas’ Hallmark debut October 31.
I am not planning on hosting a premier party filled with movie stars and red carpets: I am simply hosting my nearby family and taking a cue from the lessons I learned in watching the production crew in creating a perfect holiday set in order to create the perfect holiday mood.  And since we live in the ACTUAL and ever predictable place of New England, the snow, this time, just might be real…
Enjoy! Enjoy!
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!

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