Village Clerk Terry Emmel said the show’s location department cooperated with Mayor Patti McDonald, village trustees and residents in preparing for the shoot. To receive a permit to film, Emmel explained, the production crew was required to pay a $500 fee, and submit proof of insurance and a street activity permission form — the same form residents file to host a block party.

Three days before shooting began, residents of North Cambridge and its immediate surroundings received notices from the show’s location scouts, informing them about the shoot. The flier said that the block would be decorated with “various lights and holiday elements for Christmas scenes.” Police Chief John Aresta also worked with the crew to accommodate the shoot by offering security, limiting on-street parking along North Cambridge and instructing residents to park on adjacent streets.

Resnick said that 15 short scenes were to be filmed in the village and later featured in a larger montage for the episode. He said that some 18 houses in the village were scouted before the production crew settled on three to where they shot the short scenes. The crew had already filmed two scenes at Malverne High School a month earlier, and will shoot another scene at the school later this week.

Maura Caragher, who has lived on North Cambridge for 25 years, said the crew planned to film scenes inside her home, and decorated a number of rooms with poinsettias, a Christmas tree and Santa figurines. Because the plan was to use her home until the early-morning hours, Caragher said, the crew offered to settle her family at a nearby Hampton Inn overnight.

“This is right up our alley,” she said. “It’s fun. You can’t say no to an offer like this.”
Judy Canzoneri, 72, who has lived at 99 N. Cambridge with her husband, Joe, the village’s former mayor, for 33 years, described the “unique experience” of having three scenes filmed in her dining room, den and stairwell — all decorated with her own garlands and ornaments.