If you’re planning to travel to New York in November or December, you can’t miss one of the most amazing places in New York during Christmas, as the Dyker Heights neighborhood is lit up with its amazing Christmas lights at this time of year.

Dyker Heights is an amazing neighborhood where Christmas is celebrated with a lot of imagination, absolutely the whole neighborhood is lit with thousands of Christmas lights, the houses and gardens are decorated with giant Christmas figures, something spectacular.

This Brooklyn neighborhood is a wonder, a place of family homes and mansions with stunning gardens. Most of the people who live in Dyker are of Italian origin, on the other hand, is the neighborhood where you live this Christmas tradition of decorating houses with lights, during the Christmas season Dyker Heights is a magical place that receives hundreds of people daily.

How the Christmas Lights tradition began in Dyker Heights

According to the story, it was Lucy Spata, an inhabitant of the neighborhood who in 1986 decided to decorate her house with thousands of Christmas lights, who started this tradition of decorating the houses of Dyker Heights with Christmas lights.

After more than one neighbor saw Mrs. Lucy Spata’s house illuminated with hundreds of Christmas lights, many decided to adorn their houses, not only with lights but also with giant Santa Claus dolls, Christmas reindeer, snowmen, all neighbors joined Lucy Spata’s initiative and adorned their houses, thus began this beautiful tradition of illuminating the neighborhood.

 Dyker Heights

Dyker Heights – Source iStock

Several years later, decorating the Dyker Heights houses for Christmas became a tradition, but also a competition, each year, people living in the neighborhood work harder with the decorations and invest thousands of dollars to take the title of the best decorated Dyker Heights house, and this has made the houses look much more spectacular each Christmas.

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When are the houses in Dyker Heights decorated?

In fact, there is no exact date to decorate the houses of Dyker Heights, each house decides when to decorate, although in recent years most of the houses begin to be decorated in mid-November, after Thanksgiving, this has been done so that Christmas lasts much longer and so that people can enjoy the illuminated houses.

Many Dyker Heights homes maintain their decor until the first days of January, so you can enjoy the Dyker Christmas lights if you go to New York between November and January. Of course, if you want to see the neighborhood fully illuminated.

Christmas Lights at Dyker Heights

As we have told you, some houses decide to decorate their façades with simple, discreet decorations, only with lights and some Christmas dolls. But there are also houses that invest a lot of money in their decorations, many neighbors hire companies specializing in decoration to design and put Christmas decorations on the facades of houses.

Christmas

Christmas – Source iStock

Hiring a company to decorate the house can cost around $3,000 to $6,000. The most spectacular houses are those with the most lights and decorations. If you go near one of the houses in Dyker Heights, you will see that there are dolls that move and sing Christmas carols.

Read: Things to do in New York: December

What are the most famous houses in Dyker Heights?

We could say that all the houses are famous, as there are no houses in the neighborhood that are not decorated with Christmas lights, however, there are some that stand out much more than others for their extravagant decorations.

Without a doubt, the most famous house in Dyker Heights is Mrs. Lucy Spata’s house located at 1152 84th Street. Lucy Spata’s house is impressive, every year this house surprises visitors with new decorations and thousands of Christmas lights.

Another very famous house in the neighborhood is the house of the Polizotto family, in front of this house you can see some giant wooden soldiers that measure almost 9 meters high, also has a giant Santa Claus and dozens of angels in his garden, this is something fascinating that you cannot miss in any tour of New York. The Polizzoto family home is located at 1145 84th Street.

Another impressive house is Sam the Greek’s house, a house totally decorated with Christmas lights, there is not a single space on the façade that doesn’t have a Christmas light, it’s beautiful! This house is located on 14th Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets.

All the decorations are impressive, it is a spectacular neighborhood at Christmas that is worth visiting at Christmas in New York.

How to reach Dyker Heights?

The easiest way to get to Dyker Heights is to take the subway line D and get off at 79th Street in Brooklyn, this line leaves you a few meters from the neighborhood. Another option to get to Dyker is to take the R line and get off at 86th Street in Brooklyn.

Dyker Heights – Source www.gothamist.com

Although we recommend that you check in Google Maps that other routes you can take depending on the location you are or the place where you are staying in New York.