A Window to Halloween: Kids Paint Belmont Center for the Holiday

Chenery 7th grader Laurel Carpenter had spent an hour-and-a-half diligently applying paint to canvas, which it turned out to be the window at Patou Restaurant on Leonard Street in Belmont Center.

"It's a haunted house on a hill on a graveyard with a moon in the background," said Laurel, as she added details to her work of art on glass Saturday morning, Oct. 26.  

While applying paint on business' facades is usually frowned upon, Laurel was expressing her inner "Banksy" participating in the Inaugural Belmont Center Halloween Window Painting Contest held the weekend.

The colorful event found dozens of children from second to eighth grade and their parents creating holiday scenes on windows up and down the street; from a field of pumpkins to detailed single-panel stories with witches and horrors. 

Sponsored by the Belmont Center Business Association, the first ever event – which follows the very successful Halloween window decorations in Newton – is both community get together around the holiday and a fundraiser for the Foundation for Belmont Education. 

"A lot of kids responded and we have 65 kids who wanted to paint," said Mary Nielsen, co-owner of A Chocolate Dream on Leonard Street who managed the event with her daughter and shop co-owner Vicki Frassici. 

In the end, the window painters donated more than $500 to the Foundation. 

"It is really about people getting to know each other and being part of the community," she said.

And the winners are:

2nd Grade: Martha Petrova at Leon & Company

3rd Grade: Cecily Curtis at Robert’s Hair Salon

4th Grade: Alyssa Jang at Marcou Jewelers

5th Grade: Emily McCarthy at Bank America

6th Grade: Gemma Brizzolara at  Comellas

7th Grade: Laurel Carpenter at Patou 

Winners will receive a $10 Gift Card to A Chocolate Dream.