Nearly three years after “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA” became one of Hallmark’s top movies of 2023, a woman has gone viral for trying to pull off her own miracle in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And her efforts to live out a “real-life Hallmark movie” by saving The Christmas Barn in her town — and maybe find a little romance, to boot — have caught the attention of real-life Hallmark stars.
Dana Alyss is a Hallmark Movie Fan on a Mission to Save The Christmas Barn
When former Los Angeles-based producer Dana Alyss moved back home to Bethlehem Township a couple of years ago (just like countless Hallmark heroines who’ve returned to their small towns after life in the big city), she was disheartened to see parts of the charming town being bulldozed over by developers.
Worried their next target would be The Christmas Barn, a beloved landmark that’s stood vacant for two decades, Alyss came up with a plan to save it. She announced her plans in a video posted on June 18, 2026, and launched a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of raising the money needed for a $200,000 down payment.
Alyss theorized that if all of her 300,000-plus social media followers donated $5, she could make it happen with an additional boost from some Christmas angel investors. Incredibly, she had already met her first fundraising benchmark of $20,000 by June 26.
“When I moved back here, I actually had the idea that I should write an anti-Hallmark movie,” she told EntertainmentNow, “because I was this Los Angeles TV producer who moved back home to rediscover her roots and all that, supposed to meet the love of my life and reconnect with somebody, but everything just started going wrong. Like, it was the complete opposite of a Hallmark movie.”
“But it’s like, so much has happened since I started making plans for The Christmas Barn, that it really is starting to feel like a real-life Hallmark movie,” she laughed, noting that she’s also open to a Hallmark-worthy romance.
In fact, Alyss has some experience sharing her adventures on social media, with her popular TikTok series called The Dating Hunger Games, chronicling her attempts to find Mr. Right. But it may turn out her latest social media push will be the one that brings him into her life.
“I am a single woman looking for love,” she said, “and I figure a real-life Hallmark Christmas movie can’t happen without the dude coming along, so I’m all for that, too.”
Hallmark Movie Star Nikki DeLoach is Among Those Who’ve Donated to the Christmas Barn Fundraiser
Alyss is dead serious about bringing The Christmas Barn back to life in Bethlehem, which calls itself The Christmas City and is all decked out every holiday season. She got a realtor and drew up plans to restore the buildings and create a year-round gift shop and cafe, envisioning that it would become a must-see destination during the holidays, like it was when she was growing up.
A family who owned and ran The Christmas Barn for 30 years before selling the property in 2007 has reached out with their support, and the local zoning officer told Alyss it was the best plan he’d seen in years. Others have proposed tearing down the 150-year-old barn to build a gas station or strip mall, Alyss has been told.
“I want to have that Christmas nostalgia that it had before,” Alyss told EntertainmentNow. “Everybody always says how special a place it was, and I just want to recreate that. I know it’s really hard to create something like that once, let alone twice, but I can tell just by the response that we’ve been getting that people really want that back. And I want everybody to feel like they’re involved in making that kind of Hallmark Christmas magic with me.”
Adding to the magic, Alyss has even received comments and likes on her videos from actual Hallmark stars including Peter Porte and Benjamin Ayres (who starred in “Miracle in Bethlehem, PA”). He hilariously commented that he’ll play the zoning officer when her story becomes a movie. Meanwhile, Nikki DeLoach donated $150 to the campaign.
Hallmark Fans Are Full of Ideas & Hope for The Christmas Barn
Alyss, who actually appeared as an extra in multiple Hallmark movies when she lived in LA, would love nothing more than for her Save The Christmas Barn campaign to be so successful that it actually inspires a Hallmark movie or prompts Hallmark to film the renovations for one of its unscripted series.
It’s clear Hallmark fans would love that, too, with many commenting on her videos about their visions for the project.
Hundreds liked one funny comment that suggested, “Hallmark movie plot: Small town gal tries to save the beloved and historic Christmas Barn from the evil clutches of Kevin, the data center developer who must close this deal by Christmas Eve for his corrupt overlords. Their eyes meet at the planning commission office, their hands brush at the hot chocolate stand at the farmers market. Next thing you know they’re getting married at the barn by Mrs. Claus who is also the mayor while their golden retriever, Goldilocks, is the ring bearer.”
Alyss has also heard from many people who grew up with The Christmas Barn as part of their childhoods, including one who wrote, “I grew up going to the Christmas Barn! As a kid, the wonder and awe was foundational of my childhood. I can remember my uncle going in and purchasing a decorated tree as is and the excitement of watching the staff wrapping all the decorations and going back to my grandmothers house and redecorating it. What fond memories! #onboard with this mission!”
There are two easy ways to support the Save The Christmas Barn campaign. One is to donate to the GoFundMe campaign, which automatically increases as it reaches each new benchmark goal, and Alyss said the other is to comment on and share her videos to spread the word. You can find her updates on her Instagram account, her Facebook account, her TikTok account, and her YouTube channel.
