This TikTok Star Is Raising $200K to Save a Real-Life "Hallmark Movie" Barn
Dana Alyss grew up going to the Christmas Barn in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, every year. She remembers picking out ornaments there as a kid — including one Christmas where she and her family chose a Santa that looked like he was picking his nose.
"We picked out a Santa that looked like he was going like this," she said, laughing at the memory.
The Christmas Barn was a beloved year-round holiday and gift destination run by the Swienckowski family, who sold music boxes, ornaments, trinkets, and seasonal magic for decades on Easton Road in Bethlehem Township. Then in 2007 it closed. And it's been sitting vacant ever since.
When Alyss moved back home after years working in television production in Los Angeles, she noticed something troubling about the Bethlehem area she grew up in. Developers were moving in. A farm she loved — gone. A drive-in — gone. A plant nursery — gone. A quarry — gone. And the Christmas Barn, still standing, still empty, still somehow not yet sold to someone who would turn it into another apartment complex or medical office building.
So she hatched a plan. In a video posted June 18 that quickly went viral, Alyss launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $200,000 — the down payment on a listing price of just under $1.9 million — so she could buy the barn, restore it, and bring it back to life.
"We are trying to do a real-life Hallmark movie and save a Christmas barn in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania," she said in the video.
The Internet Said Yes
Alyss has several hundred thousand followers across social media platforms from her viral series including The Dating Hunger Games and The Ugly Friend. When she pointed that audience at the Christmas Barn campaign, things moved fast.
Comments flooded in. Shares went everywhere. And then something genuinely unexpected happened — actual Hallmark stars showed up in her comment section.
Peter Porte and Benjamin Ayres, who starred in Hallmark's 2023 film Miracle in Bethlehem, PA — set in this exact town — left comments on her videos. Ayres joked that he'd play the zoning officer when her story becomes a movie. Nikki DeLoach, another Hallmark regular, donated $150 directly to the campaign.
Alyss, who actually appeared as an extra in multiple Hallmark movies during her LA years, said she'd love nothing more than for the campaign to inspire a Hallmark movie — or prompt the network to film the renovations for one of its unscripted series.
Why This Feels Like More Than a Barn
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, isn't just any town. It's known as the Christmas City — a place with genuine holiday heritage, German roots, a famous annual Christkindlmarkt, and enough seasonal charm that Hallmark has already made it the setting for a Christmas movie and included it on its Christmas Cam livestream alongside towns specifically selected to "evoke the real-life essence of festive communities."
That context is exactly why losing the Christmas Barn to a developer feels like more than just a real estate transaction to people who grew up there.
"A lot of the developers coming here are not from the area," Alyss said. "They don't really see the things that we hold on to here as being as important as we think they are."
She's not wrong. Local landmarks close, get bought, and get demolished by people who see a profitable lot rather than a piece of community identity. The Christmas Barn has survived that fate for almost 20 years — and Dana Alyss is trying to make sure it survives for 20 more.
The GoFundMe is live. The Hallmark stars are commenting. The barn is still standing. Whether the rest of the money comes together is the part of the story that still needs writing.
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