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Guides
5 Boston holiday lightings in 2026, including one where Santa arrives by boat
Boston’s holiday lightings start Nov 23 and end with two on Dec 3. Two get Santa and Rudolph, one gets Santa by boat, and the big tree on the Common is a gift from Nova Scotia. Boston’s biggest Christmas tree is a thank-you note. Every year Nova Scotia sends the city a tree for the help Boston rushed north after the 1917 Halifax explosion, and this year’s tree lighting is Thursday, December 3. Before that night, the city’s Parks Department lights up a waterfront trellis, a playground ship and the newly renovated Copley Square. Here are all five, in order, with the times and what to expect at each. The season starts on the North End waterfront, where the Parks Department and the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park light the park’s 260 feet of trellis for the 24th annual trellis lighting. It runs from 5 to 6 p.m. at 110 Atlantic Avenue, next to the Marriott Long Wharf. Santa and Rudolph make an appearance, there’s live music, H.P. Hood pours eggnog, the Marriott brings hot chocolate and cookies, and Joe’s Waterfront serves clam chowder. Since it ends at 6, you have the whole evening left for dinner in the North End, a few blocks away. This one is built for kids. At 5 p.m. the Friends of Martin’s Park and the Parks Department host the fifth annual lighting of the ship at Martin’s Park, 64 Sleeper Street on the Fort Point waterfront. The park’s ship, the beach fencing around it and the pedestrian bridge get wrapped in more than 1,500 feet of blue and white tube lights, and Santa pulls up on the Harborwalk by boat with the Boston Police Harbor Unit. Berklee musicians play holiday songs, and kids can meet the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit, climb around a Boston Fire Department truck and make holiday crafts with a local artist. Hood and Caffè Nero bring the holiday drinks. It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so if family is in town, bring them. Copley Square Park has been under renovation, and this year’s Copley Square Tree Lighting doubles as its grand reopening. It runs from 5 to 6 p.m. at 560 Boylston Street, with guided tours of the renovated square, arts and crafts, Santa and Rudolph, and performances by vocalist Joelle James, the Boston Children’s Chorus and the Symphonic of Emerson College. Once the tree is lit, walk across the street to the Fairmont Copley Plaza for cookies and photos with Santa at 6 p.m. This is the big one. The Boston Common Tree Lighting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. next to the Visitor Information Center at 139 Tremont Street, hosted by Mayor Michelle Wu and the Province of Nova Scotia, with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston joining her. The tree is the province’s yearly thanks for December 6, 1917, when a munitions ship exploded in Halifax Harbor and, within 24 hours, a train full of supplies and emergency crews left Boston to help. This is the 55th year Nova Scotia has sent Boston a tree. If you want to see it before it glows, it’s due to arrive on the Common by police escort at about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 24. Park Street and Boylston are the closest T stops on lighting night. Don’t leave when the Common’s tree comes on. Right after, around 8 p.m., Mayor Wu walks over to the Back Bay with the Friends of the Public Garden to light the trees on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, from Arlington Street all the way to Charlesgate. Neighborhood volunteers ran this display for decades before joining forces with the Friends of the Public Garden in 2022. The walk from the Common through the Public Garden to the start of the Mall takes a few minutes, so you can catch both lightings in one night, then keep walking under the lit trees toward Mass Ave. All five are hosted by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and held outdoors in public parks, so dress for a cold night on the water or the Common. The two Monday events and the ship lighting each run about an hour, starting at 5 p.m., which makes them easy to fit in after work. December 3 is the crowded one, so get to the Common early if you want to see the stage. The Parks Department answers questions at 617-635-4505, and every event links to its city page above if a date changes for weather.
20 Italian restaurants in Boston for your next pasta craving
Boston’s Italian restaurants can turn a pasta craving into a fairly long argument about where to go. The North End has plenty of answers, but so do South Boston, the South End and East Boston. A table of cicchetti, a bowl of lobster ravioli and a sandwich eaten on the way somewhere else all deserve a place in the discussion. These twenty choices cover different kinds of meals. Some are sit-down restaurants for a long dinner; others work for a board of cheese and salumi or a quick lunch. Start with the food and the neighborhood, then check the booking arrangements. A busy sidewalk is not a reservation system. Carmelina’s serves Sicilian comfort food with Mediterranean influences in a small Hanover Street room with an open kitchen. Pasta and seafood are central to the menu. Its reservation rules are specific: online bookings through Yelp, parties of no more than six and ninety-minute table slots. Plan the after-dinner conversation somewhere else. Giacomo’s on Hanover Street is a cash-only, walk-in restaurant, with phone arrangements listed for parties of ten or more. Its menu centers on house-made pasta, seafood and its Giacomo and Fracomo sauces. Come prepared for the actual seating process rather than arriving with a tight deadline for the next part of your night. Mamma Maria overlooks North Square and changes its regional Italian cooking with the New England seasons. It has several private dining rooms as well as its regular dinner service, making it worth considering for a meal with a particular occasion attached. Ask about the room and group arrangements directly when planning a celebration. The Salty Pig on Dartmouth Street lets you build a board from meats, cheeses and accompaniments before moving on to pasta or pizza. Its menu includes house-made charcuterie alongside products from other makers. It works for a table that wants to share a few things, then decide whether dinner needs another round of food. Bar Volpe brings southern Italian cooking to West Broadway in South Boston, with handmade pasta, vegetables and wood-fired seafood. Karen Akunowicz’s restaurant is also a pastificio, or pasta shop. You can sit down for dinner or buy pasta, sauces and ricotta to make the following night considerably easier. SRV on Columbus Avenue takes its name from the Serene Republic of Venice. The menu gives you cicchetti, fresh pasta and risotto made to order, with Italian wines and cocktails. Start with small bites before deciding on the larger dishes; a Venetian-inspired meal has more routes through it than an appetizer followed by chicken parm. Coppa is Ken Oringer’s South End enoteca, serving Italian small plates, house-made pasta, pizza and charcuterie. The Shawmut Avenue restaurant also has outdoor seating when conditions allow. It is a useful choice when one person wants pizza, another wants pasta and everyone is willing to share at least the first part of dinner. Trattoria Il Panino serves pasta and other Italian dishes around Hanover and Parmenter streets, with a covered patio among its seating options. Its website lists a separate late-night menu on Fridays and Saturdays. Check which menu applies to your arrival time if you are planning dinner after a show rather than before one. Bricco on Hanover Street combines an Italian dining room and wine bar, with pasta, seafood, meat and chops across the menu. The bar offers a different way into the evening, including cocktails and pizza. Make sure you are booking Bricco Ristorante; its nearby bakery and salumeria are separate stops with different purposes. Prezza on Fleet Street gives pasta and wood-grilled dishes equal room on the menu. Its listed options include smoked mozzarella ravioli, fish stew, grilled swordfish and steaks. That range suits a group that agrees on Italian food but does not all want a bowl of pasta. Read the current menu for seasonal preparations. Rino’s Place in East Boston serves handmade pasta and substantial red-sauce dishes, including lobster ravioli, baked pasta and chicken or veal preparations. Its menu also states that the restaurant is cash only. Bring what you need to pay before sitting down; this is a detail to settle before the check arrives. Fox & the Knife on West Broadway is Karen Akunowicz’s Italian restaurant and enoteca, with handmade pasta, antipasti, aperitivi and amaro. The bar serves the full menu and is held for walk-ins on a first-come basis. It gives a solo diner or pair another option when the reservation calendar does not cooperate. La Famiglia Giorgio’s on Salem Street is built around Roman cooking and large portions. The family-run restaurant explicitly encourages the kind of meal that leaves you with something to take home. Ask about portions as you order, particularly if the table is considering several appetizers before everyone chooses a main. Arya Trattoria on Hanover Street offers a three-course menu called Fare un Viaggio alongside its individual dishes. The whole table must participate in that option, which includes appetizers, pasta and an entrée for each person. Agree on the format before ordering; it is meant to be a shared decision rather than one person’s add-on. Lucca on Hanover Street offers Italian dinner service, with separate wine, cocktail, dessert and children’s menus. Its private dining options include a wine room and other spaces for groups. Keep it in mind when the meal involves several generations or an organized gathering, and discuss the group’s needs before choosing a room. MIDA’s South End restaurant is the Tremont Street location of chef Douglass Williams’s Italian neighborhood restaurant. Use the South End menu and booking page when making plans, since MIDA also has restaurants in East Boston, Newton and Fenway. The shared name does not mean a reservation at one will get you seated at another. Euno’s menu runs from linguine with clams to mushroom gnocchi and pappardelle with a meat sauce. Seafood and meat entrées give non-pasta eaters options too. The North End restaurant also lists nightly specials based on available produce and seafood, so ask about those before deciding the printed menu has settled everything. Terramia on Salem Street serves northern and southern Italian dishes in a small North End restaurant. Its menu includes vegan ravioli as well as seafood pasta and meat dishes. It is worth a look for a mixed group of eaters, with any allergy or strict dietary requirement discussed directly with the restaurant before booking. Ciao Roma looks onto North Square and serves Roman-inspired Italian food, including homemade pasta. Outdoor seating is a separate reservation choice, and the restaurant warns that it may not be able to move patio diners inside in bad weather. Book the setting you actually want and read the terms before choosing an outdoor table. All’Antico Vinaio is the sandwich option here, with Boston branches of the Florence-born shop. It belongs in a lunch plan or a quick meal rather than a list of formal dinner reservations. Compare the fillings at your chosen location and order for the appetite you brought; a restaurant guide can leave room for paper wrapping. For another night, our Boston restaurant guide covers meals beyond Italian food. If dinner is only the start, keep the next stop nearby: the speakeasy guide gives you a few places to continue the evening.
Get to know Boston
Whitey Bulger forced a family to sell him this Southie liquor store
Stephen and Julie Rakes had only recently opened their South Boston liquor store when James “Whitey” Bulger decided he wanted it. They told him it wasn’t for sale. He and his associates threatened the family until they surrendered the business. The address is 295 Old Colony Avenue, where Rotary Liquors appears in Boston’s licensing records today. Before that name, it was associated with Stippo’s Liquor Mart and the South Boston Liquor Mart, a business that became part of Bulger’s criminal operation. The story behind Whitey Bulger’s liquor store involves more than a gangster meeting place. It also involves a family who sought police help and an FBI agent who passed information to the man threatening them. The liquor store the owners didn’t want to sell Stephen Rakes and his then-wife, Julie, opened Stippo’s Liquor Mart in 1983. In January 1984, Bulger, Stephen Flemmi and Kevin Weeks went to the Rakes home to acquire it. The federal appeals court’s account of the takeover describes Rakes refusing both a sale and an unwanted partnership. Bulger responded with a death threat. The men returned later that evening with weapons. Flemmi picked up the couple’s young daughter while threatening her father’s life. Bulger handed Rakes roughly $65,000 and promised another $25,000. The gangsters treated that payment as making them the owners, despite the family’s refusal to sell. The pressure continued afterward. The family briefly fled to Florida, then returned and tried to hold on to the store. They eventually signed it over. The request for help that reached Bulger Julie’s uncle, Joseph Lundbohm, was a Boston police detective. When the couple asked for help, he approached FBI agent John Connolly. Connolly was handling Bulger and Flemmi as informants. The information Lundbohm brought him should have prompted an investigation into the threats. Instead, the federal court’s findings in United States v. Salemme describe Connolly failing to record the report or alert his supervisor, then telling Bulger about it. Bulger subsequently pressured Rakes to have Lundbohm back off. The family’s attempt to obtain protection had reached the person they needed protection from. That detail explains why this address matters beyond its association with Bulger. The store’s takeover was also an example of the protection his corrupt relationship with an FBI agent afforded him. The court found that the FBI did not investigate the extortion of the Rakes family. Before the liquor store, there was a garage Bulger and Flemmi had previously conducted business at the Lancaster Street Garage, 131 Lancaster Street, in Boston’s West End. The West End Museum’s history of the garage describes bookmakers delivering payments there after Bulger’s rise within the Winter Hill Gang. George Kaufman owned the business, officially called Lancaster Foreign Motors. Massachusetts State Police bugged the building in 1980 and watched its visitors from across the street. Bulger and Flemmi learned that the location was under surveillance and stopped using it for a time. The garage and the liquor store were different addresses serving a similar purpose: functioning businesses that also provided places for the gang’s activities. The sale agreement appeared at Bulger’s trial Decades later, the liquor store appeared among the exhibits introduced at Bulger’s 2013 trial. GBH’s collection of trial evidence identifies an agreement selling the South Boston Liquor Mart to Kevin Weeks, with Bulger named as a silent partner. It also identifies the business as Stippo’s. That document connects the names readers encounter in accounts of the property. Stippo’s and South Boston Liquor Mart refer to the business involved in the takeover, while the agreement placed Weeks in the transaction and identified Bulger’s interest behind him. What is at 295 Old Colony Avenue today? A Boston Licensing Board notice for May 2026 lists Rotary Liquors at 295 Old Colony Avenue, South Boston, operated by Mahabali Corporation. The notice concerns a request to change the manager of its retail alcohol license. The current business has a different name from the store described in the historical records. Its presence at the address should not be taken to suggest any connection between its present operators and Bulger’s crimes. For other addresses connected to Boston’s organized-crime history, our article on 4 Boston-area gangster hangouts covers the North End and Somerville locations separately.
The famous Boston accent and its obsession with the letter R
Say “car,” then say “car engine.” For someone with a traditional Boston accent, the R can disappear in the first version and return in the second. The next sound makes a difference. That detail gets lost in plenty of Boston impressions. Removing every R gets you only so far, and eventually gets you somewhere nobody here is from. The accent has patterns involving consonants, vowels, and the way words meet in a sentence. It also varies considerably among the people who use it. Which R’s does the Boston accent drop? Linguists call the traditional accent non-rhotic. In ordinary terms, speakers often leave out an R after a vowel when another consonant or a pause follows. Think of “park,” “card,” or “car” said on its own. The R at the beginning of “red” stays. So does the one in “bring.” A Boston speaker is not applying a blanket ban to the letter. An R can also return at the end of a word when the next word starts with a vowel sound. In “car engine,” the words connect through the R. This is called linking R, a pattern also found in other non-rhotic English accents. Try saying the phrases naturally rather than giving each word its own pause. The difference is easier to hear in a sentence than in a list of words written with “ah” at the end. And where do the extra R’s come from? Then there is intrusive R: an R sound between words where no R appears in the spelling. “The idea of it” can sound like “the idear of it.” The vowel at the beginning of “of” creates the setting for that extra sound. It does not mean every Boston speaker says “idear” whenever the word appears. The University of York’s explanation of linking and intrusive R describes how one pattern developed from the other. Speakers extended an existing way of joining vowel sounds to words that did not have a written R. The extra consonant helps two vowel sounds meet. It follows a pattern, rather than arriving wherever an actor decides to put it. The vowels matter, too Listen to “cot” and “caught.” For many traditional Boston speakers, those words sound alike. That shared vowel is another important part of the accent, although it receives considerably less attention than “pahk.” Some speakers also use a broad A in words such as “bath” or “half,” bringing the vowel closer to the one in “father.” These features are not a checklist every Bostonian completes. A person can have a recognizable local accent without using all of them. You can hear examples in WBUR’s recordings and explanation of Boston speech, which includes Dartmouth linguist James Stanford discussing the sounds. Listening is more useful than trying to reconstruct an accent from exaggerated spelling. How Boston came to sound this way Boston speech belongs to the broader Eastern New England dialect region. Its history includes the English spoken by early settlers and the region’s continuing connections with England. Boston University linguist Neil Myler points to settlers from East Anglia as an important influence on the region’s R-dropping speech. Stanford also emphasizes the close contact Boston maintained with southeastern England, where non-rhotic pronunciation gained social prestige. That history helps explain the connection, but the accent has continued changing here. The way someone speaks also reflects their family, community, education, and social surroundings. Four centuries of Boston life did not leave the original dialect untouched. “Wicked” and “frappe” are a different part of the story An accent concerns pronunciation. A dialect includes vocabulary and grammar as well. “Wicked,” used to mean very or extremely, is vocabulary. In “wicked cold,” it increases the force of “cold.” It does the same job in “wicked expensive,” with less pleasant financial implications. “Frappe” is another regional word, pronounced “frap” in the familiar local usage. Merriam-Webster records both that pronunciation and the thick-milkshake meaning. Someone can order a frappe, complain that it is wicked expensive, and pronounce every R. Knowing the words and having the accent are separate things. Not everyone raised here sounds the same Research has documented differences across age groups and communities. In a 2010 study of Boston and two New Hampshire towns, linguists Naomi Nagy and Patricia Irwin found that younger speakers pronounced more post-vocalic R’s than older speakers. Education and other social factors also mattered. Those results concern the people in the study, rather than every younger person in Boston. They also measure one feature: someone who pronounces more R’s can retain other local sounds. The accent does not disappear the moment one pronunciation changes. For some people, sounding local is a source of pride. Others have felt pressure to soften their pronunciation to avoid being judged. Both experiences help explain why a city can have such a recognizable accent without all its residents sharing it. Pronouncing the R in “Dorchester” does not cancel out having grown up there.