Crown Media
Hallmark’s 2017 Countdown to Christmas movie, Switched for Christmas, features a Hallmark favorite, Candace Cameron Bure. So of course, Hallmark will pull out all the stops for a movie where she plays twins! But when was Switched for Christmas (formerly called Christmas Sister Swap) filmed and where? Although many Hallmark Christmas movies are filmed in Canada, that’s not the case with Switched for Christmas.
Switched for Christmas was filmed in Utah, including Payson, Draper, and Salt Lake City (including the Salt Lake Fairgrounds and downtown Salt Lake.) The movie was filmed from late September to mid-October.
You can read a casting call from Salt Lake City here. Interestingly, early casting calls indicated that Lacey Chabert would be starring in the movie too, but that might have been an error. Chabert instead starred in The Sweetest Christmas, which has already aired and was an absolutely delightful movie. The casting call was looking for extras, both male and female, from ages 5 to 60.
You can see other casting calls for the movie here. They include the following interesting tidbits about the movie:
- On October 13, ice skaters with a lot of experience were needed for filming in Salt Lake City, between the ages of 16 and 22.
- An earlier call requested cars 1997 and older for a shoot as part of the movie. A call for October 10 requested extra to play “hipster/executive type,” ages 23 to 45, in Draper, Utah.
- Also on October 13, casting was looking for a white male, who looked like he was in his 40s, with salt and pepper hair.
- Someone aged 45 or older was needed to play Santa on October 11 in Salt Lake City.
- On October 1, an attractive male bartender in his 20s was needed for shooting in Salt Lake City. Owning a Christmas sweater was definitely a plus for this part.
Here’s a photo taken during filming in Salt Lake City. Cindy Cogdill Richardson shared this on Cameron Bure’s Facebook wall. She said she could see the filming right outside her office. Bure commented that she loves to wear slippers in between takes in order to stay comfy.
Facebook/Cindy Cogdill Richardson
Cameron Bure shared some photos from her time on the set too:
And here’s a photo from Payson, Utah:
An article by local news Serve Daily talked about how downtown Payson was turned into a winter wonderland for the movie. The crew spent three days in Payson, and commented that the city had the perfect small-town America look. The news story noted that the movie was filmed in just 17 days.
How does Hallmark give its movies such a wintery feel, even when the temperatures aren’t so cold? Much of this is thanks to the crew. There are different ways, including snow blankets, a product called Krendl that’s tough to clean, fire-retardant foam, ice shavings taken from ice blocks, snow from ski slope machines, and crushed limestone. Whichever method they choose for a film, it always seems to work.
Comments
Where Was Hallmark’s ‘Switched for Christmas’ Filmed?