In America’s Merriest Christmas Town, an ICGA Farmer Is Keeping Her Family’s Legacy Alive

Carlinville has always looked like it belonged in a Christmas movie. Now it’s going to be in one.

Hallmark named Carlinville America’s first-ever “Merriest Christmas Town” on October 15, after a nationwide search narrowed the field to 25 finalists. As the prize, the town will be the backdrop for a 2027 Hallmark Christmas movie.

The storefronts and lights on the square get the attention, but Carlinville is a farm town at heart. Many of the people who own businesses around the square also farm the ground around it. They’re the same families who run the fair, serve on local boards and turn out to make the Christmas market happen every December.

Kim Carney Rhodes is one of them. She farms in Macoupin County, is an ICGA member and serves as president of the Macoupin County Fair Board, and she says that overlap is exactly what makes the town work.

“Carlinville is an amazing town. It’s an amazing community,” Rhodes said. “There’s a lot of people that work together. We have amazing organizations that do a lot to support each other. That’s what makes Carlinville a great place to live, a great place to raise your family and a great place to visit.”

A town worth the drive

Rhodes says first-time visitors should start on the square, browse the businesses around it, and then head to the Million Dollar Courthouse and the Cannonball Jail, which was in use “more recent than most people would think.” A self-guided tour with QR code signs leads visitors through town, including Carlinville’s historic Sears homes district. The town also sits on Historic Route 66, and it draws motorcyclists from around the world.

The Hallmark entry came from the Carlinville Chamber of Commerce. Its executive director put together a video from the town’s annual Christmas market, which spreads across downtown, the Macoupin County Fairgrounds and other venues around town. This year’s 36th annual Christmas in Carlinville is December 4–6, with trolley and bus rides to help visitors get around town.

Raised at the corn growers’ conventions

Rhodes’s commitment to her community comes from her parents. Her father, Gerald Carney, served on the first IL Corn Marketing Board. He was active in ICGA, the National Corn Growers Association and the U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council, and he chaired the National Corn Development Foundation in the late 1980s.

So the Carney family vacation every year was the national corn convention.

“I babysat kids from all over the United States when we would go to those conventions,” Rhodes said. “I have lots of memories of the corn growers and the national association.”

What stuck with her was the giving back and the advocating for agriculture.

“That’s why I’m such a proponent for educating on agriculture and where your food comes from,” she said.

Three generations on the farm

Rhodes started helping on her family’s farm near Girard when she was six or seven. She and her husband have farmed together since 2005, working his family’s ground south of Carlinville and hers to the north. Their 19-year-old son is now joining the operation while he studies at Black Hawk College. He also shows cattle and is building a registered Hereford herd, and he has started expanding into other breeds.

From the corn conventions of the 1980s to the Christmas lights on the Carlinville square, Rhodes is carrying on what her parents taught her: when farmers show up for their town, the whole community shines.