If you live in downtown Boston (especially if you’re in a neighborhood with a lot of students) you know it is the eve of what many here refer to as “Allston Christmas”. Not a single Uhaul van or truck is available in metro Boston as the city braces for tens of thousands of students to officially return.
I don’t know if it is true but years ago I read that one out of every four apartment leases in Boston has a September 1 start date, which creates mass havoc in the days leading up to and on September 1st. Starting today and through tomorrow the streets of many neighborhoods will be full of double-parked cars, vans and trucks as tenants start the arduous task of moving from one apartment to the next.
The result of this is that the city sidewalks become littered with unwanted items. This ‘littering’ of every piece of furniture and furnishing imaginable is what is referred to as an Allston Christmas. Although this city-wide move impacts nearly all of Boston’s neighbohoods, nowhere is the experience more intense than Allston, although many neighborhoods will likely experience their own form of an Allston Xmas.
In case you think I’m making this up, Urban Dictionary added this term in 2008 here and one only needs to type in the phrase in Google and select images to see what the streets of Boston will look like starting August 31st.
BosGuy 