Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of R-rated sexual content.

Christmas Notch, a small fictional town in Vermont, is the main setting of A Merry Little Meet Cute. This imaginary town is a popular film location for holiday movies for the Hope Channel and, as such, symbolizes bucolic sweetness, rural simplicity, and holiday cheer, the exact opposite of busy, cosmopolitan, sophisticated Los Angeles, where the characters normally live. This contrast highlights the tension between the supposedly wholesome entertainment on offer in Christmas Notch and through the movies of the Hope Channel and its “image and brand as a source of clean holiday entertainment for the whole family” (355), as opposed to the “raunchy” adult entertainment industry that Teddy, Bee, Sunny, and Luca participate in.  As such, the town acts as a parody of the film industry and of the moral hypocrisies that that industry reflects and propagates.

The town also provides an incongruous and self-consciously fantastical setting for the protagonists’ meet-cute, characteristic of the romantic comedy genre. Nolan’s perceptions of Christmas Notch note its old-fashioned charm: “Nestled against the picturesque backdrop of snowy mountains and pristine forest, the small town was a pretty clutch of brick buildings, glass-fronted shops, and gorgeous Victorian houses” (22).