How “One Royal Holiday” Was One Royal Savior for an Inn in Connecticut

The premise of Hallmark Channel’s One Royal Holiday is as cozy as a snowy Christmas morning—Anna (Laura Osnes) helps a mother and son who are stranded in a blizzard, only to discover the pair are actually royalty. Gabriella and James Galant (played by Victoria Clark and Aaron Tveit) are members of the Royal Family of Galwick, yet they’re (very fancy) ducks out of water in Anna’s hometown. It’s up to Anna to show the Galants what a Christmas in Connecticut is all about, with a little help from her father’s Inn at Woodstock Hill. In the process, Anna will help the Prince open his heart and find himself. Love is in the air, and the setting couldn’t be more picture-perfect for this mismatched pairing to find out they’re actually meant for each other.

The cast of One Royal Holiday is led by Broadway stars (Osnes, Tveit, and Krystal Joy Brown, who plays Anna’s friend Sarah), and while the location of One Royal Holiday might be a few hours from the Great White Way, it provides just as compelling of a stage for the heartfelt story. The film was shot primarily at the Inn at Woodstock, a gorgeous bed and breakfast near the quaint town of Putnam, Connecticut. Filmed at the Inn in 2020, One Royal Holiday played a huge role in keeping the historic house going—it was originally constructed in 1816—in a very difficult time.

“We were really hurting, and the film essentially saved the Inn at Woodstock,” says current owner Doug Woodward. “If they hadn’t shot the movie here, I don’t think you and I would be having this conversation right now. One Royal Holiday was really one royal savior at the end. The influx of money they provided was huge.”

One Royal Holiday was filmed at the Inn during the pandemic’s early days in the summer of 2020, helping the Inn when businesses big and small were facing the possibility of closure. “It was like the hottest it’s ever been in Connecticut,” Woodward recalls. “It felt like it was 140 degrees with seven thousand percent humidity, and you’d drive by the Inn, and there was just fake snow everywhere. Bizarro world. They took all the rooms for 45 days; they served a hundred and three people a day, three meals a day.”

The meals alone were a Herculean effort by the Inn staff. Chef Katie Collins, who worked on-site, fondly recalls the long hours and late nights on a movie set that also happened to be her work place.

“I was on site while they were filming, and I was there from about 12 pm to 4:30 am on weekdays and 9 am to 6 pm on weekends,” Collins says. “I was mainly in the kitchen cooking meals for the cast and crew. We ended up filming a lot at night, so breakfast was at 5 pm, lunch was around midnight, and dinner was around 5 am. We had over 100 cast and crew on a regular day, sometimes more with extras, and at least 30 of them had allergies or needed specialized diets.”

At a time when the Inn might have been more or less empty and the staff working in skeleton shifts, it was, instead, a hive of creative activity. While each day provided challenges and satisfactions, Collins has a few standout memories from the production, including a big party on the Fourth of July.

“We had a barbecue with fireworks later in the evening, and it was fun talking with the cast; we had to all stay on-site with COVID testing every three days and weren’t really allowed to leave the premises, so we all really got to interact with each other,” she recalls. “They also ended up filming in the kitchen, and I even got to have some of my food on film!”

The lasting impact One Royal Holiday has had on the Inn is measured in big and small ways, as well as in meaningful interactions with guests who are fans of the film.

“The crazy thing is, we’re now four years removed, and at least once a month, we get guests specifically because of the movie,” says Woodward. “One mother and her daughter came in because of the movie, so I found the old boards [detailing the Inn’s layout and which rooms are booked], and the next day, I came back in and showed them where the cast had their breakfast and dinner, and where the Christmas tree was and where everyone stayed, and they were very smitten. Continuously, we get people specifically because of the movie.”

Collins agrees with Woodward that One Royal Holiday was a major boon then and now.

“The film definitely helped the Inn stay open during COVID-19,” she says. “It helped us keep all our employees working with the mandates in place. In the long term, we have seen quite a few people coming in and mentioning they saw the movie, and that’s why they came there. Many of our guests are very interested in discussing how it was filmed.”

Even the aesthetics of the Inn itself got a boost from the production. The usual procedure when a film shoots on location in a place like the Inn is that any cosmetic changes made for the production are temporary, and everything is restored to exactly how it was when the shoot is over. However, for the Inn, which was set to undergo a change in ownership at the time, the production’s set design needs actually proved to be a big bonus.

“Our front living room is now green because Hallmark painted the wallpaper over it to make it look right for the movie, and it looks fantastic,” Woodward says. “So, we got a free update of our front living room from Hallmark.”

For more on how films impact local communities, check out these stories:

How a Historic House in Connecticut Gave “Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane” the Perfect Location

How “The Penguin” Production Designer Kalina Ivanov Helped Bring Gotham Back to New York City

Featured image: “One Royal Holiday.” James (Aaron Tveit) gives Anna (Laura Osnes) a gift on Christmas while Sarah (Krystal Joy Brown) looks on. Courtesy Hallmark.