Holidays Made Here Gilmore Girls At Warner Brothers Studios

I mean, as soon as it was announced that you could actually stay for hours exploring Stars Hollow, I knew we were going. I mean, duh.

Stars Hollow is the fictional town depicted in the wonderful show Gilmore Girls. It was filmed at the Warner Brothers lot which is in Burbank, California. We had done a tour with them in June, but they just briefly showed us the town. We got to get out, but it was only about ten minutes. It simply wasn't enough time to really take in Stars Hollow.

Plus, the place wasn't dressed to look like Stars Hollow. It's technical term is Midwest Street. This is because other productions use it and dress the area as they like. But it'll always be Stars Hollow to me. 

Then Warner Brothers Studio Tour announced they'd have a Holidays Made Here event where Stars Hollow would be recreated and you could walk around as long as you'd like. Well, until 7. Then they kick you out because the staff wants to go home.

So we went! And was it worth it? What did we see?

Well.

See, to visit Stars Hollow you had to book a tour with Warner Brothers, which starts at around $70. Then afterwards you could walk over to Stars Hollow. When I saw this sign, excitement bubbled through my stomach because, oh my gosh, there were all the places from my favorite show.

We stopped by Lorelai's house first:

I was told that yes, that was the original mailbox from the show! You can see Gilmore faded. 

There was a line to take a picture in front of the house so we had to do that:

Lorelai's jeep was there:

Yes, you could go in the house, but true fans know the real interior shots were filmed on a sound stage. So the rooms aren't accurate. 

This was Rory's room. Not her read bed. We all know it's a brown wood. But it was still a nice set up.

Here was the living room. I wish the monkey lamp had been there:

This was the outside of the house and Natalie was recreating the nail polish scene:

There were fun photo ops set up around town. Remember the dinner at the Inn and everyone got rides on horse drawn carriages?

There was also Trivia games and guess what? Natalie won! It was a tie between her and another girl. They went to a sudden death round and kept getting everything right so the guy said they were both winners. Natalie won a magnet. I am amused that I passed my love of the show onto her and she knows more about it than I do now. It's because she watches it every morning when she gets ready for school so all those facts were firmly embedded in her head. 

There was also a costume contest for people who dressed up like the characters every day. We didn't do that one. 

We got to explore inside Kim's Antiques. It's not as cluttered with stuff as in the show:

But we did see this inside! Do you remember what it was?

And we got to see Bjork!

We did take graduation photos in Stars Hollow, and were thrilled to be in front of Sookie's house. (Yes, the back of her home is Lorelai's!)

And we went into Luke's Diner. This will take the longest as there is always a line. We waited about an hour or so. So bring patience. The reason it's so long is because it's such a small space inside and they can only allow so many people in there. 

We quickly sit down at a table which yes, were screen used. A lot of the stuff out were original from the show.

Trust me, we wanted to stay longer, but we also understood there was a long line of people who wanted to get in, so we didn't stay long. 

Every evening they did a tree lighting ceremony. You hear Lorelai's voice say "I smell snow" and then snow falls. It's magical.

And all the buildings are lit up with lights. We quickly stopped by to see Lorelai's house. There was still a bunch of people wanting pics, so I quickly snapped this shot and we left.

Oh, and we stopped in the Dragonfly Inn for some tea and snacks. Now, this is not the real Dragonfly Inn. The interiors were on a sound stage and they bulldozed the spot where exteriors were shot. Sadly. If I recall, this house was the Growing Pains and Gremlins one. 

However, it was still neat to go inside. 

There was truly so much to see and do. Our tour was at noon. It takes an hour and then you are free to wander Stars Hollow. We were there from about 130-7. We did not feel bored. Not once. We took everything in. 

Yes, there was food set up in different spots. Al's Pancake World was open! Tommy got food from there and said it was good. And Tommy, by the way, has never seen Gilmore Girls and he still enjoyed himself. He said he liked the vibe. So yes, you CAN take people who have no idea what is going on.

There was plenty of merch! Sadly, some of the popular stuff sold out. So shop early. The Team Jess stuff went first. 

Will they be doing Holidays Made Here next year? Yes! It's the 25th anniversary of the show so I'm told it'll be even bigger, which I am thrilled about, because I thought this one was pretty fabulous. 

Will we be returning? YES! 

If you've never seen Gilmore Girls, check it out on Netflix and Hulu!

Would you go to Holidays Made Here?