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INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) - Santa’s elves are working overtime this summer in Missouri.

Independence is decking the halls a bit early this year. The streets of downtown are adorned with tinsel, ribbon, wreaths and Christmas lights.

“I think it’s exciting,” said Independence resident Michelle Walz. “It’s wonderful.”

“Oh, think they did a fantastic job,” Neil Steiner of Blue Springs said. “It looks like Christmas down here. Christmas in July!”

Filming has already started in the city’s downtown for Hallmark’s upcoming Christmas move, ‘Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.’

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Independence Square will serve as the movie’s primary backdrop.

“We’ve been working with our lighting company that does all of our holiday lightings every year to recreate what we usually create,” Jeff Rogers, executive director of the Independence Square Association, said. “They’ve been fabulous. Then of course the production team comes and does the final judge of truly making it look like Christmas.”

The crew will shoot for about a month. The movie will be released later this year, though no exact date has been announced.

Rogers says the city is already experiencing an economic boost from the production.

They plan to replicate the current setup this holiday season to attract more visitors after the release.

“The number of production crew that’s here, the number of additional extras that stop in our shops, eat in our restaurants, those types of things have already had an impact,” Rogers said. “We know additional people will want to come and see when the move is released. Film tourism is a real thing, and we’re going to try to grab onto that.”