Grinches steal Grinch, vandalize parts of Candy Cane Lane (UPDATES)

UPDATE (4:47 PM): The Candy Cane Lane community found themselves a new Grinch on eBay this afternoon. And KING5’s Allen Schauffler will be reporting on the vandalism tonight at 5 PM. We’ll link to the footage here when it becomes available.

UPDATE (7:49 PM): Here’s the segment on the Candy Cane Lane vandalism from tonight’s KING 5 News at 5:



Candy Cane Lane was visited by real life Grinches late Saturday night. At least two of the decorated homes’ had decorations destroyed, among them inflatable Grinch at the entrance to the annual neighborhood light show.

[ABOVE] The Gross family’s Candy Cane Lane display, featured in last year’s Seattle Times piece on the neighborhood’s annual light display, is now missing its centerpiece.

We talked with Candy Cane Lane resident Tracey Sconyers on Sunday night about the vandalism. Her “Toy Shop” home has often been the target for some late night redecorating shenanigans — names added to the “Naughty List,” the reindeer placed in compromising positions — but never theft and destruction.

“This was a very different level of vandalism that happened,” she said. “They were out to destroy things.”

Sconyers herself happened to be up late Saturday night, as her daughters were having a sleepover with some of their friends. Around midnight, after the light show had been turned off, she heard some “unusually mean” talk about the street coming from outside her house.

Looking out the window in her front door, she could see three or four people, older than high school age, walking by, “trash talking the street.” These individuals even walked onto the porch of a neighbor’s house before getting into a white stretch SUV-style limo that had been seen driving down the lane during the light show a couple hours before.

No vandalism had occurred at that time. But Sunday morning, many of the Sconyer’s home’s decorations had been destroyed or stolen. And the inflatable Grinch, a local holiday icon for many local kids and their families, was missing. All that was left of him in the Gross family yard near the entrance to Candy Cane Lane where some shredded pieces of fabric and bare wires.

It is not known whether the white limo’s occupants are to blame for the incident, but the coincidence is a tough one for Sconyers to ignore.

The show must go on

After a successful community sale earlier in the year, the neighborhood has enough money to replace missing or destroyed decorations; however, the Grinch was around 10 years old, and came with the house.

If anyone happens to own a festive inflatable Grinch, the neighborhood is very interested in replacing the one that was destroyed. Otherwise help in the form of donations to Northwest Harvest are greatly appreciated.

Candy Cane Lane (NE Park Rd) is open now through New Years Eve. Hours for the lights are 4-11 PM, and until midnight on Christmas Eve and New Years.

This year, the area elementary school-aged girls have created the “Candy Cane Club” and will be passing out candy canes on the weekends. Warm drinks can be purchased at the nearby neighborhood grocery store, Boulevard Grocery, at Ravenna Blvd and 20th Avenue NE.

Donations for Northwest Harvest are collected at the exit of the lane.

Ravenna’s Candy Cane Lane set to open December 10

We’ve heard from one of the homeowners on Candy Cane Lane (NE Park Rd) that their annual holiday light extravaganza is set to start on December 10 this year.

Looking festive now — Imagine what it will look like at night!

Here’s a story on the history of this annual neighborhood tradition from the Seattle Times last year.

Your Busy Weekend in the Ravenna Neighborhood (updated)

Here is a smattering of events happening today (Saturday) and next week.

Saturday, October 1

  • Help out our neighborhood and its community organization by delivering copies of the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association’s Fall 2011 Newsletter to your part of the neighborhood. No delivery area too small. Please contact RBCA Land Use Committee Chair Andrew Miller for more information.
  • Ad partner UW Medicine is holding an open house at their new Ravenna Clinic location (4915 25th Ave NE #300) from 1-4 PM. Tour the new facilities, listen to and meet members of the UW Husky Marching Band (from 1-1:30 PM), meet UW mascot Harry the Husky (1-2 PM), enter to win gift certificates to University Village, and more. More information about this new UW Medicine primary care clinic and today’s open house can be found here.
  • Ravenna Community Garden hosts a Harvest celebration dinner this Saturday Oct. 1 from 5:30-7:00 PM at the Ravenna Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE). Pasta, salad bread and dessert on the menu. Donations happily accepted: $5.00 individual, $10.00 family.
  • Candy Cane Lane holds its annual yard sale (weather permitting) on Saturday, October 1, from 8AM-1PM, at 2132 Park Rd (the corner house at the bend on Ravenna Blvd, closest to the Ravenna playground and parking lot). It is a multi-family sale put together by the Candy Cane Lane families, and we use the proceeds to buy all the paint, plywood, lights, decorations, etc for the yearly holiday display, as well as to pay the electric bill to run the revolving carousel. This year we will have some furniture, including two children’s rolltop desks, some outdoor items, plus lots of toys, books, children’s clothing, baby items, kitchen items, and household goods such as lamps, curtains, rugs, etc. We never know what the neighbors bring out until the day of the sale, and every year we have some lovely treasures.

And into Next Week

  • Join other Eckstein Middle School parents at a gardening work party
    in the raised beds in the back courtyard every Monday and Wednesday from 9-10 AM (weather permitting). Please bring gloves and weeding tools if you have them. For more information or to make a donation please contact Gretchen Bauer at
    urbandingo@gmail.com.
  • Ravenna-Bryant Community Association’s fall community-wide meeting takes place next Tuesday night, October 4th, at the Ravenna Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE), from 7-9 PM. Agenda and more information available here.

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    Local residents and business owners: Have an event going on for or in the greater Ravenna neighborhood that you’d like to share? The email inbox is always open for you: rebecca@ravennablog.com.

The Seattle Times looks at Candy Cane Lane, past and present

Looking for information on how to negotiate Ravenna’s famous Candy Cane Lane? And maybe a bit of its history to boot?

Our news partners at the Seattle Times have the answer.

Seattle Times Candy Cane Lane article from December 15

The picture above links to an article about the neighborhood-within-our-neighborhood that has been putting on an annual holiday show since the 1950s. Also found within are directions, instructions, and a reminder to bring along your canned-food donations to Northwest Harvest.

Candy Cane Lane runs from 4pm to midnight, daily, through December 31st.