Where was Christmas Chronicles 2 filmed? The Resort Location in Mexico

Posted by Ra Moon

The Christmas Chronicles saga returns for the holiday season with a new installment featuring Kurt Russell as Santa Claus and Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus.

This time they will have to face troublemaker elf Belsnickel, who threatens to cancel Christmas forever.

While the majority of this festive movie was filmed in the studios near Vancouver, at one point the story brings us to the gorgeous Riviera Maya in Mexico.

There is no doubt that the filmmakers made a good decision by whisking half the crew down to the Caribbean instead of staying in Canada with a warm cup of tea, relying on virtual sets and green screens.

Let's have a look at this superb filming location, the Mexican resort featured in The Christmas Chronicles 2:

Where was The Christmas Chronicles filmed?

The hotel where the Pierce family spends their vacation listening to Christmas Carols played by mariachis is the splendid Fairmont Mayakoba.

Located just outside Playa del Carmen, 30 miles from Cancun, this is a luxury resort, five times winner of the American Automobile Association – AAA Diamond Award.

(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Fairmont - Map

The resort boasts 240 hectares of tropical forest, mosquito-rich waterways and crystal clear lagoons, with a private shoreline of beautiful sun-kissed white sand beach.

The Fairmont Mayakoba has 401 guest rooms, including 34 delightful suites, a seafood restaurant, a sushi bar, a swim-up bar, a fitness center, and a spa area.

But what we liked the most is the fact that the whole complex is car-free and you have to access the different parts by boat, on foot or by bicycle.

Under these circumstances, who wouldn’t want to run away to the North Pole?

But just in case you fancy a hot Christmas in style and sunshine, we checked the price for a double, air-conditioned room on Booking.com: starting at US$300, the spacious room offers views of the pool, water canals, or tropical forest.

And the bathroom comes with a bathtub! The all-inclusive option starts at US$582. You can also rent a Signature Casita Suite for US$632.

While the many elves in The Christmas Chronicles 2 may be computer-generated, you can see from this screenshot, that the hotel in Mexico is legit.

Image courtesy of Netflix

The production was hosted by the Mammoth Studios in Burnaby, near Vancouver.

According to director Chris Columbus, Santa's village is a huge physical set, bigger than the Great Hall in the Harry Potter saga.

Columbus also worked on two of the Harry Potter movies.

Some of the houses in Santa's village are inspired by the vivid colors of traditional Russian architecture, also widely used in Disney's The Nutcracker, as you can appreciate here (the building on the left looks like the State Historical Museum in Moscow's Red Square).

Production designers are always picking up elements from different traditions for inspiration.

Usually, their references are the Central European architecture of well preserved Medieval towns like Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany, mixed with Gothic Revival style (aka Addams Family house style), sprinkled with some Art Nouveau features.

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2 comments:

1- Anonymous - November 30, 2020 at 4:03 PM
What type of style are the buildings in Santa's village?

   Reply
   2- Ra Moon - December 5, 2020 at 10:04 AM
   We expanded the post with new details. I hope this answers your question :)

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