By Kingsli Kraft
We are quickly approaching the time of year when Alpena transforms into a charming, cozy little town fit to be the setting of a sweet and comforting Hallmark movie where everyone finds love and no problem is too big to be solved—usually with a cookie contest or a Holiday Festival or a grand gesture on a Christmas tree farm—and always in time for the holiday.
So here are 5 spots for a Hallmark Movie Worthy Meet-Cute in Alpena.
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While Holiday Shopping in Downtown Alpena
Can’t you just picture it? You’re dressed in your coziest sweater and your favorite jeans, and your cutest shoes, bundled into a jacket with a scarf flickering around the chilly breeze. You’re carrying a peppermint hot cocoa from your favorite downtown coffee shop, and you’re looking for a gift for a loved one. Maybe you find the perfect wreath on display in Water Street Commons as White Christmas plays over a speaker. You reach for the wreath at the same time as a hometown hottie does. It’s someone you haven’t seen in years, and they just moved back home to be closer to family. You chat a little, banter, and flirt. They let you take the wreath as long as you promise to help them find an even better one for their mom. The happy ending practically writes itself!
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At the Elk Viewing Carriage/Sleigh Ride, Gourmet Dinner & Wine Tasting Event at Thunder Bay Resort
You and your friends decide to check out this magical event. The friends who invited you also invite their friend from out of town who is just visiting the area (maybe to get away and relax because of the stress of their big-city job?). You’ve never met this friend but in this scenario, the sparks don’t fly immediately. At least not romantic ones. You love Christmas and the season so much that everyone asks if you’re secretly Santa Claus, they’re a grumpy holiday Grinch who’s lost their Christmas Spirit. (We love a Sunshine and Grump trope!) But together with a delicious meal, wine tasting, and on a magical sleigh ride to see the elk you and your yuletide cheer start to make their heart grow at least one size before you call it a night with plans to see them again to convince them that this really is the best season.
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Attending a cozy holiday themed art class at Art in Loft
You and your friends decide to flex your creative muscles. Maybe this time you’re the one lacking a little Christmas cheer this year. Your friends take you to a cute holiday themed paint and pour or a fused glass Christmas ornament workshop to try and get you into the holiday spirit you usually have. For goodness sake! It’s December and you haven’t even decorated yet. At the workshop you end up seated by a cutie who has truly no idea what they’re doing creatively but is really trying their best. This isn’t weaponized incompetence, it’s just an absolute beginner determined to try something new. You’re reasonably artistic and they’re charming and adorable, think Golden Retriever energy. You end up helping them make their masterpiece and they ask you to attend a wreath making workshop with them the following week. Maybe they’re on some kind of end of year quest to be more artistic, a New Year’s resolution that they’ve put off all year, but now they need your help! This could only lead to them surprising you with a grand gesture of helping you decorate your home on Christmas Eve at the very last second and living happily ever after by New Years.
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Searching for the perfect Christmas Tree at Deans Tree Farm
Imagine this one, you arrive at the Christmas Tree Farm with your electric chainsaw in tow, determined to pick a live tree for the first time by yourself. You find the PERFECT tree, so proud of yourself. Except you forgot to charge the battery on the chainsaw and now you’re stuck asking someone else for help. Luckily there’s a kind and cute local that you’ve seen around town before there with their nieces and/or nephews picking their own tree. They happily lend you their ax or chainsaw so you can cut down your own tree. Then they help you carry it to your vehicle and secure it to the top. There’s some respectful and sweet flirting and you leave it there, only to run into them every day for the next week… which leads to a secondary meet cute at a mutual friend’s Christmas party at their decadently decorated home and one thing leads to another and you’re wedding is the following year on Christmas.
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At the Bolenz Holiday Parade on Black Friday
You’re visiting family who live in the Alpena area for Thanksgiving and you’re all attending the holiday parade downtown the day after Thanksgiving. You’ve left your family waiting for the parade to make its way to you to grab a quick social district drink from a downtown bar, maybe a hot spiked cider or a mulled wine. You’ve just made it inside and are headed to get in the line forming at the bar when a voice says “Excuse me! You dropped this!” you turn around to discover your red and white striped mittens your grandma knit you had fallen out of your coat pocket. A bundled up cutie pie with a great smile is holding the mittens out to you. You wait in line together striking up a little conversation. You help each other pick out a drink from the specialty menu and they end up paying for your drink. They walk you back to your family and invite you to a local craft show where they’ll be selling some unique artisanal product like handcarved spoons or something. It was love at first sight and when you come back to visit at Christmas it seals the deal and the credits roll after the happily ever after smooch.
Disclaimer: this is all a fun little fantasy. We can’t help that our charming town serves as the perfect backdrop to daydream about falling in love! So unfortunately we can’t guarantee that any of these activities will lead to your happily ever after. But hey… there’s no harm in trying!</span>
420 N. 2nd Ave. Alpena, MI 49707
989-340-2288 