SWEETWATER, Tenn. — Cable Christmas specials often follow a predictable formula, and one small town in East Tennessee checks all the boxes if you're looking to experience a holiday classic of your own.
In Sweetwater Tennessee, the holidays look a lot like a plot from a Hallmark Christmas movie.
"We have business owners who have moved here from New York and California and all the big cities to come to this small town to start a second life over, and I think that just sounds like the perfect Hallmark movie," said City Recorder Jessica Morgan.
A speaker broadcasts Christmas carols from the Gazebo in the center of town every afternoon, and local shops line Main Street, where shopping is about more than finding a few items on your list, it's an experience.
At the Lilly Pad Boutique, Brenda Bryan, her daughter, and her granddaughter all run the shop that was one of the first to open on Main Street.
"We like to think that if three generations come shopping together, everyone can leave with something. We have that happen a lot," Bryan said.
Main Street Director Kassie Kelly stays busy during the holiday planning events every weekend that include setting up a snow machine.
"Just look around you. We've got snow, and it's 60 degrees outside. We've got Christmas Caroling. This is just the perfect place to find your little soul mate," Kelly said.
The owner of Dogwood Lane Boutique did meet her soulmate when she moved to town from Upstate New York.
"I was set up with my fiance because of my boutique," Kelli Maniscalco said. "He's a contractor. I'm a boutique owner. It's right out of a movie."
Morgan hopes movie execs will take notice of the similarities between Sweetwater and the small towns you see in Christmas movies.
"I mention it at every meeting I go to. I just figure if I keep saying it enough, the right person's going to hear it, and it's going to happen," Morgan laughed.
She's listed it on the Tennessee Film Institute website as a location and written to the folks at Hallmark, but movie or not, Morgan says you can experience the magic of a cable Christmas classic anytime you come to town.