Producers of Christmas movies love to set their sappy stories in snowy Vermont, but they rarely film in the real place. Christmas Cowboy, released in mid-November, is an exception. The movie follows a New York City real estate developer who returns to her hometown of Jericho on a business trip. There she reconnects with her estranged family and childhood crush, who has grown up to run an equestrian therapy center. The syrupy holiday flick was filmed last year almost entirely in the Green Mountain State, including at the Opera House at Enosburg Falls, Fell-Vallee Equestrian Center and the Ellis Inn in Colchester, the Green Mountain Equestrian Center in Jericho, the DoubleTree by Hilton in South Burlington, and Hinterland Bride and Kru Coffee in Burlington. Astute viewers might even recognize a few familiar Vermont faces on-screen. Students from Enosburg Falls and Richford made cameos as extras — as did comedian Mike Thomas and a certain unwittingly cast Seven Days reporter. (Find the back of my head in the bottom-left corner during the Christmas ball scene, roughly an hour in.) Spanglish Media, a Miami production company that aims to increase Hispanic representation in media, produced the movie with a roughly $250,000 budget. The film is already streaming on platforms such as Apple TV+, YouTube TV and Prime Video. Vermonters can also see the movie on a big screen at the Opera House at Enosburg Falls on Friday, December 20, complete with a red carpet. "I'm trying to make it as Hollywood as possible," said Shayna Sherwood, the movie's casting director and associate producer. Sherwood grew up in Vermont and now splits her time between the Franklin County town of Berkshire and Los Angeles. She's worked as casting director for several Nickelodeon TV shows and assisted in casting for the likes of HBO's "The Newsroom," "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "High School Musical 4." While Christmas Cowboy had a lower budget than the productions Sherwood typically works on, she views the movie as part of a broader effort to attract more film productions to the state. Vermont rarely hosts film shoots, largely due to the absence of tax incentives for filming. Sherwood would like to see that change, arguing that movie productions can boost small-town economies through spending on accommodations, food and other local services. "You film at the Opera House, that's extra money for this little place that needs money…