Has anyone ever lived in one of those small, Hallmark style US towns?

[BabyLlamaZen]

I know it's not real, but I do have a guilty pleasure watching them all around Christmas. Think 'My Christmas Inn', 'Christmas made to order', that sort of thing.

The romantic in me loves the idea of swooping into one of these gorgeous towns, (local hunk on hand of course!), set up my own coffee/bookshop, that kind of thing. Live at the local diner.

Has anyone actually stayed in one of these places or know what they're really like?

Does it really feel cosy and like a break from normal life?

I have a feeling it's probably like any small town, undiverse and a bit miserable when people can't get jobs 🙈

I want to know too.

There's a you tube channel called it's a southern thing, and I sort of want to live there, sweet old fashioned people, gentile manners. I do hope someone answers you OP.....

I've always wondered this! They look so lovely and quaint

Full of meth, heroin and racism.

Oh I never have but I dream of the day a long lost aunt leaves me a b&b/ abandoned holiday resort in such a place
Then I just turn up (after giving up my prestigious career as an advertising guru/ international ballerina etc), meet a hunk in a lumberjack shirt and live happily ever after.

Until lumberjack gives you a thump for his bacon not being crispy enough

@myhobbyisouting that does not happen on channel 5

I live in one.
Small town America is actually really charming if a bit dull. It is very safe but also pretty smug and very white.

There is also likely to be another area close by where people with a lot less money love in cheaper housing in an out of town housing development or even a trailer park. My town has an old mill to get animal feed and garden supplies, a cider mill, a hardware store and various coffee shops and arty places as well as a couple of pubs. There's a river and parks etc. Then there a more modern section of housing with a grocery store and pizza places etc, then around the edge are modern housing developments.

We're also about five miles from a nice university city and only 40 minutes from Detroit so have a big airport and big events like concerts.

People are genuinely kind, the schools are great and there's a strong sense of community spirit. There's also been opposition to a new block of affordable housing, and some people are not welcoming of us as we British so we're immigrants.

I want to live where Sweet Magnolias was filmed.

I live in a Scottish village. It's just like one of those Hallmark towns. But with Scottish accents!

My sister, who lives in England HATES it. She gets creeped out by people walking past and saying, "Good morning! Lovely day eh?" Especially when we don't know them.

I recently attended my father's funeral down south. The only person other than family to say hello to us in three whole days, (including shop staff who didn't even greet people) was someone we passed walking our cases away from our little station heading home. A local. I can't say I knew their name but their face was familiar. Down south we were ignored. Not even a friendly passing smile.

You can get that Hallmark town right here in the UK, but if I ever was to relocate to the USA it would have to be a New England small town from the Christmas movies.

I lived for a couple of years in a small new england town that looks a bit like a Hallmark card (but also has a university in it).

It all looked cute in the winter but there were some pretty dysfunctional things below the surface too (drink-driving, sexual harassment at work)

@cctvrec your description of your sister's response to people saying hi has made me chuckle.
I grew up in a London suburb but spent a lot of holidays as a kid visiting family in ROI and I LOVED that everyone knew each other and would stop to chat etc. As I got older I realised living out in the little village where my cousins did would be boring AF, no public transport etc.
Now we live just outside of a London Borough- so suburbia with a semi-rural section at top of the road and I always say hi or good morning to the dog walkers we see when we are out walking and they always return the greeting. Always gives me a warm glow!

I’ve quite a bit of experience with such towns along the Eastern Seaboard, Southern States and the Rockies.

For the most part it’s not easy being mixed race in them (as I am). My black family members didn’t feel safe.

It gets boring after a while and these towns can be very judgemental and conservative with a set way of doing things that’s acceptable. Quite often people will be very outspoken about their prejudiced views but under a polite, bless your heart veil.

As a pp said, usually within a short distance there will be an area of deprivation. It can be quite frightening how within 5 minutes drive things can be VERY different.

Two of my favourite sleepy Hallmark towns are in California and Florida. Both more liberal and slightly more multicultural and certainly “safe” for BAME families (as long as you are middle class!). Sometimes they seem eerily perfect and I do wonder if they change the batteries in the birds when we go to bed.

Also...there’s quite a dirth of decent eligible men despite the Hallmark narrative. The best ones settle down very young. The decent ones who don’t want to settle down young move out in pursuit of more exciting lives. You don’t come across many single men. It’s where people move when they have families of their own. Good luck with your coffee shop...even the smallest towns have a Starbucks .

Those towns always look like somewhere in Vermont to me.
We lived in a small town, very rural, but ot as pretty as the TV movies by Hallmark. Everyone knew everyone pretty much, very friendly, happy to help each other. More churches than bars or restaurants.

I imagine they are more like Schitts Creek in reality

hallmark or Twin Peaks?

I think we have equivalents here in the U.K.

My hometown, Lytham, reminds me of the Hallmark movies. Dalgety Bay in Fife is another. Hebden Bridge. Harrogate. Stow on the Wold. Loads of towns around the Lakes, Cheshire etc.

The vast majority of them are filmed in Canada by the way.

I have family born and raised in small Archetypal us towns. Some still living there.
It depends so much where. Eg Vermont equivalent in say Kansas would be hugely different.
Midwest - can be stiflingly narrow minded/ great place to bring up a family so long as your politics ‘fits’. Slow pace of life. Often church and high school are absolutely the be all and end all of community life. Depending on where as po says some have been ravaged by drugs etc. Some are ghost towns where many leave at first opportunity. Others are thriving and alternative vibe etc.
Back in the 30s-50s full of ‘main drag’ homecoming Queen/king, KKK, masons etc etc.

Never known anything like it here in U.K.

@user1471565182

Full of meth, heroin and racism.

This was always my fear! I'm also not that into God, so not sure how well I'd fit in...

I think that issue is bigger in ex mining towns right? The 'really small towns I guess.

@NameChange84

I’ve quite a bit of experience with such towns along the Eastern Seaboard, Southern States and the Rockies.

For the most part it’s not easy being mixed race in them (as I am). My black family members didn’t feel safe.

It gets boring after a while and these towns can be very judgemental and conservative with a set way of doing things that’s acceptable. Quite often people will be very outspoken about their prejudiced views but under a polite, bless your heart veil.

As a pp said, usually within a short distance there will be an area of deprivation. It can be quite frightening how within 5 minutes drive things can be VERY different.

Two of my favourite sleepy Hallmark towns are in California and Florida. Both more liberal and slightly more multicultural and certainly “safe” for BAME families (as long as you are middle class!). Sometimes they seem eerily perfect and I do wonder if they change the batteries in the birds when we go to bed.

Also...there’s quite a dirth of decent eligible men despite the Hallmark narrative. The best ones settle down very young. The decent ones who don’t want to settle down young move out in pursuit of more exciting lives. You don’t come across many single men. It’s where people move when they have families of their own. Good luck with your coffee shop...even the smallest towns have a Starbucks .

Which ones are they? Interesting to know!

@KickAssAngel

I live in one. Small town America is actually really charming if a bit dull. It is very safe but also pretty smug and very white.

There is also likely to be another area close by where people with a lot less money love in cheaper housing in an out of town housing development or even a trailer park. My town has an old mill to get animal feed and garden supplies, a cider mill, a hardware store and various coffee shops and arty places as well as a couple of pubs. There's a river and parks etc. Then there a more modern section of housing with a grocery store and pizza places etc, then around the edge are modern housing developments.

We're also about five miles from a nice university city and only 40 minutes from Detroit so have a big airport and big events like concerts.

People are genuinely kind, the schools are great and there's a strong sense of community spirit. There's also been opposition to a new block of affordable housing, and some people are not welcoming of us as we British so we're immigrants.

That's a shame how you still don't fit in. How long have your been there?

Also I'm actually married so the hunk thing was a joke really I think in reality I would find it hard to switch off to all the issues that are brushed aside, despite the lovely hot chocolates and gingerbread making that supposedly goes on!

Stars hollow is another one.

What are the Canadian ones like?

Imagine in real life after your christmas wedding in these places though when it gets to around january 20th and you have no money and you find out hes a Republican

And then you go bankrupt for having an asthma attack