CHICAGO — The set of “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story” has more secrets than Santa's workshop.
The extras who are present for filming − clad in winter coats, beanies and scarves − gather in downtown’s Federal Plaza, where the city’s longstanding Christkindlmarket has been erected. It looks like a holiday wonderland, with local vendors displaying sweet confections, and glass ornaments paying homage to the city’s football team and popular attractions, like Cloud Gate (known as “The Bean”).
But behind the scenes, hot chocolate canisters are empty, sweat is building up under the clothes and production is scrambling to keep the holiday magic alive. After all, it is July 13 and temperatures are expected to climb to 86 degrees.
With a robust slate
for Hallmark's popular Countdown to Christmas franchise – this year releasing 34 new features from Oct. 16 to Dec. 20 – most movies, like “A Bears Love Story” (premiering Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. ET/PT) are filmed off-season.
“We try and get as many movies done between November and March, when it's really winter,” producer Andrew Gernhard tells USA TODAY. “But of course, they do anywhere from 25 to 40 movies a year, and a lot of them are done during the summer.”
In the network’s third collaboration with an NFL team – which follows the inaugural “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” (2024) and “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” (2025) – journalist Avery (Lyndsy Fonseca) is assigned to write a profile of avid Bears fan Darlene (Marsha Mason) and gets some necessary coaching about team devotees from Darlene’s grandson, Matt (Robert Buckley).
Thanks to production’s bag of tricks, which rivals Santa’s sack of gifts, the network is able to make some Christmas magic at its various locations around Chicago, including the Bears’ stadium, Soldier Field.
During a tailgating scene, which director Dustin Rikert remembers as “a 95-degree day and massively humid,” Buckley recalls rubbing his hands together to act as if he were combating the cold. Then he “looked over at one of the women in the scene and just saw beads of sweat, all around her nose.”
“I was just laughing to myself," Buckley, 45, says, "being like, ‘All right. You know, there's only so much you can do.’”
Creating a woven winter wonderland
Chicago typically gets around 38 inches of powder annually, but while filming in the summer, production relies on fake snow, woven from fibers made from shredded plastic.
“You can adjust the edges, and it turns into lumpy, realistic looking snow,” says Margaret Goddard, special effects coordinator, who notes production ordered approximately 10 rolls measuring 250 feet x 4 feet. “We take that and we kind of pull it apart, arrange it, then wet it and come back around and burn it with a torch so that the edges curl up.”
More snow will be added in post-production, Rikert says, with CGI flurries blanketing the ground, covering rooftops and creating a falling effect. “Sometimes we'll even add a little digital breath,” Rikert notes, “but that takes a lot of time in post-production, so it depends on our turnaround time from when we have to deliver the movie.”
The makeup team’s defense against sweating
Sweat makes filming closeups challenging, Rikert says. And luckily for the director, leading man Buckley says he perspires “like it's my job." More than his own discomfort, the “One Tree Hill” alum worries about slowing down production: “If you are profusely sweating, that means after every single take, makeup has to come in and dry you off and then powder you, and wardrobe might have to change stuff out.”
Makeup department head Averi Rasmussen says touchups on “A Bears Love Story” can be "anywhere from every five minutes to 10 minutes,” in contrast to “once every 20 minutes, half hour, or just waiting till they're going in for a close-up if it's temperature controlled.”
The prep starts when actors sit in the makeup trailer, with Rasmussen applying a facial deodorant. She’s a fan of Carpe’s Sweat Absorbing Face Lotion. The antiperspirants “will only work so long,” Rasmussen says, “but it is very helpful to have that to start the day. It also helps with hair because then they're not sweating so fast in the hairline, which prolongs their look.”
Rasmussen also embraces waterproof and longwear makeup products, along with waterproof sunscreen.
Facing the heat in winter clothes
Rasmussen also emphasizes the importance of keeping the actors cool while making it look like a brutal Chicago winter.
“It never got below 90 our first week,” Buckley says, “and we had lots of exterior scenes, because we're showcasing the beautiful city of Chicago, which is wonderful. But when it's 90 degrees out, and a little humid, and you're wearing an undershirt, a T-shirt, a sweater, and a peacoat, you could imagine that things get toasty pretty quick.”
Dan Hampton, former Bears defensive tackle and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has a cameo with current tight end Colston Loveland at Federal Plaza. Due to the intense heat, Hampton, 69, jokes that Loveland, 22, clad in a Bears hoodie, pants and satin jacket, would "weigh 210 by the time we get through filming today.” (That’d be a pretty significant drop for 6’6 first round draft pick, clocking in on the Bears’ roster at 241 pounds!)
Other tricks to combat the heat include fans, ice packs strapped to the actors' backs, frozen rings around their necks, chilling lidocaine patches, witch hazel and cooling sprays.
“Every time they call ‘Cut,’ we're running in with fans,” Rasmussen says, “and holding them till they say, ‘Rolling.’”
“Safety's a big concern,” Gernhard adds, noting how the holding area for actors features air-conditioning, water and snacks. "We have medics on board … The crew gets tents to be under so they're not in direct sunlight.”
Even indoor settings weren't immune to the sweltering heat. On the day the cast filmed at the Irish Nobleman Pub in Chicago’s River West neighborhood, it was 94 degrees outside. Air conditioning was cut so it didn't interfere with sound, and the bar’s numerous windows invited the heat to linger, turning the location into a festively decorated greenhouse.
Fonseca, 39, her onscreen mom Jody (Barbara Alyn Woods) and stepdad Ron (Khary Payton) rehearse in tank tops. During a break on set, Woods’ real-life boyfriend “Golden Bachelorette” alum Mark Anderson, cools her down with a pink handheld fan.
Costume designer Keith Nielsen keeps temperature in mind when building a character’s wardrobe. “I do love an Ann Taylor acrylic or cotton knit because it breathes more than like a wool and it appears more winter-[like]."
If Nielsen has an outfit with multiple layers that will be buried beneath a jacket, he’ll snip the sleeves off.
“Every little bit helps,” Buckley says, “so losing sleeves is immensely helpful.”
Fighting ‘really bad’ air quality resulting from wildfires
While each Christmas movie filmed out of season faces similar challenges, the cast and crew of “A Bears Love Story” also had to deal with smoke from the summer’s blazing wildfires that plagued Canada and nearby states.
“The air got really bad here,” Buckley says. “I went to bed the night before and it was like crystal clear skies, great air quality, and woke up the next morning and it looked a dream sequence. You could barely see two blocks down the road.”
That day of filming included mostly interior scenes filmed at the pub with one exterior scene. But for the scene they had to shoot outside, the group "huddled up" together to discuss levels of comfortability.
“We talked to the department heads and everyone agreed that if we just shot it as quickly and efficiently as possible that we could do it," Buckley says, noting that everyone wore masks "up until they call action." "So we were able to sort of get through it and have it not be too much of an obstacle."
“Any time you go through something hard with a group of people, it bonds you,” Buckley adds, reflecting on filming amid the summer heat. "No one ever had a bad attitude about it. And especially when Marilu Henner and Marsha Mason aren't complaining about it, there is no space for Robert Buckley to complain about it."
“It's so worth it,” says Chicago native Henner, 74, who makes a cameo, “because this way, they get to put it together and then people get to enjoy it at Christmas. I mean, everybody loves a Hallmark Christmas movie!”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hallmark Christmas magic secrets – How 'A Bears Love Story' beat heat, wildfires
