Discover the Off-Season Charms of Door County, Wisconsin
With its quaint towns, pretty parks, and sandy beaches along 300 miles of shoreline, Wisconsin’s Door County has long been a popular Midwest summer getaway. However, this slender peninsula sandwiched between Lake Michigan and Green Bay has plenty of appeal in winter, too. A new holiday movie, “A Wisconsin Christmas Pie,” aims to showcase the region’s winter charms, and it’s a love letter to a vacation destination that often gets overlooked when the temperature drops.
The movie stars Katie Leclerc as a Chicago pastry chef who returns home to Door County, where she has to deal with her family’s struggling orchard and a rekindled crush on a high-school flame. The film is set against the stunning winter backdrop of Door County, with scenes unfolding among the snow-covered branches of Peninsula State Park and rows of dormant cherry trees at Lautenbach’s Orchard Country. Characters stroll between stalls selling cherry jam, alpaca sweaters, and dried lavender at Christkindlmarkt, an annual event in the northern county hamlet of Sister Bay.
A Winter Wonderland
Door County’s winter landscape is a far cry from the bustling summer months, but it has its own unique charm. The region’s parks turn into cold-weather playgrounds for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, and snowmobiling. Anglers head onto carpets of ice to catch whitefish, walleye, and northern pike. The Ridges Sanctuary offers hiking and luminaria-lit boardwalks at its 1,700-acre nature preserve in Baileys Harbor, a lighthouse-studded town on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula.
The county’s largest city, Sturgeon Bay, is home to about 10,000 people and the Door County Maritime Museum, a good spot to warm up indoors. The tourist attraction draws about 100,000 visitors a year, many of whom come to learn about the plethora of shipwrecks filling the surrounding waters. The county’s name stems from the French phrase for death’s door, a reference to the treacherous passage between the north end of the peninsula and Washington Island, the largest of Door County’s 34 isles and the only one with a year-round community.
A Culinary Delight
Door County is famous for its fish boil, an outdoor event that involves tossing kerosene on a fire, causing a giant kettle of fish, potatoes, and onions to boil over. The blaze gets rid of the fish oil that’s floated to the top of the cauldron. This culinary spectacle with Scandinavian roots is a hot ticket with tourists in the summer, but some places keep the tradition going all year. The White Gull Inn in Fish Creek puts on winter fish boils Fridays and Sundays, while Waterfront Mary’s Bar and Grill in Sturgeon Bay offers them on Saturdays.
Both fish boil joints are among the 16 stops that make up the new Door County Christmas movie trail. At each location, people get points for checking in with their mobile phone, which can be redeemed for movie-themed prizes at the Door County welcome center in Sturgeon Bay. According to Jon Jarosh, head of communications for Destination Door County, “People who are here in the winter always say it looks like a Christmas movie, and now it is.”
A Holiday Movie Trail
The Door County Christmas movie trail is a great way to experience the region’s winter charms, and it’s a perfect activity for families and couples alike. The trail takes you to various locations featured in the movie, including Lautenbach’s Orchard Country, Peninsula State Park, and the Door County Maritime Museum. At each stop, you can learn more about the region’s history, culture, and natural beauty, and you can even pick up some movie-themed merchandise along the way.
So why not plan a trip to Door County this winter and experience the region’s off-season charms for yourself? With its stunning natural beauty, rich history, and delicious cuisine, Door County is a perfect destination for anyone looking to get away from it all and enjoy some quality time with loved ones. Read more about the new holiday movie and the Door County Christmas movie trail Here
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Katie LeClerc in “A Wisconsin Christmas Pie.” (Cherry Pie Film LLC/TNS)
