Long-time Dyker Heights resident Lucy Spata’s house — widely viewed as the catalyst for the neighborhood’s Christmas lights tradition — is pictured on December 15.
In this neighborhood, every house is a winter wonderland
Photographs by Laura Oliverio, CNN
Story by Zoe Sottile, CNN
Published December 20, 2023
Long-time Dyker Heights resident Lucy Spata’s house — widely viewed as the catalyst for the neighborhood’s Christmas lights tradition — is pictured on December 15.
In New York City’s Dyker Heights, “deck the halls” is more than a Christmas tune — it’s a way of life. In fact, local residents are decking not just the halls, but their porches, awnings, yards and more with Christmas cheer.
The neighborhood, nestled in the south of Brooklyn, has become a tourist attraction because of its show-stopping holiday decorations. Dozens of homes participate in a now-annual tradition by constructing elaborate festive displays: Massive inflatable snowmen, huge Santa sculptures, snow machines, and dazzling arrays of lights transform residential streets into a scene from a Christmas movie.
During December, thousands of visitors from across the city — and beyond — come to admire the spectacle, sampling hot chocolate or other treats sold by streetside vendors as they take in the sights.
Josephine Beckman, district manager for New York City’s Community Board 10, which includes Dyker Heights, told CNN that the area has experienced a “tourist boom” in recent years. Organized tour buses regularly bring groups for guided excursions from Manhattan, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Long Island, she said.
Others come from much farther afield: One such group of visitors told CNN they were visiting Dyker Heights from Barcelona. The neighborhood’s Christmas display had made it onto their list of must-see New York destinations, along with Central Park, 5th Avenue and the Statue of Liberty.
“I think it’s amazing,” Heribert Playà-Albinyana, visiting New York with his father and sister, told CNN. “It’s very, very impressive.”
Beckman attributed the tradition to one woman: Lucy Spata, whose jaw-dropping Christmas display was the busiest attraction when CNN visited Dyker Heights.
Spata, who moved to the neighborhood in 1986, said that at the time “there were no decorations at all“ on her block, according a 2021 interview with CNN affiliate WABC-TV.
“Christmas means a lot to me because I come from a family that has always decorated for Christmas,” Spata told WABC. “I had said to my husband, ‘What do we do?’ So we decorated… The following year, I went bigger. I did it for my mother to keep her memory alive. And now it means much more to me because two years ago I lost my husband.”
During December, Spata’s house is adorned with dozens of nutcrackers, Santa sculptures and other Christmas decorations — the residence is affectionately called the “angel house” because of the proliferation of angel figures in particular. And today, these decorations live alongside those of dozens of other families, who install creative and intricate holiday displays of their own.
Elias Karounos, a student at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, told CNN that his family has set up Christmas decorations each year since moving to Dyker Heights 15 years ago.
“We do it all ourselves,” he said. He said he started their 2023 display — which includes a huge inflatable Santa and a variety of twinkling lights — while he was home for Thanksgiving but didn’t get around to finishing it until December 16.
The influx of tourists during the holiday season can be “a little annoying,” especially when trying to drive down the packed streets, he added. But overall, he described the unique tradition as a positive attribute of the community.
Alaina Fragoso, who moved to Dyker Heights this year, told CNN that she originally planned to just put up one decoration: an inflatable Santa riding a dinosaur, naturally.
But as she saw her neighbors getting “more and more committed,” she expanded her own decorations, she said, adding a “Merry Christmas” sign, garlands and strings of lights. Her 2-year-old daughter “loves it,” Fragoso said, and comes outside every night to look at the dazzling lights and the crowds.
Living in the center of the Christmas bonanza can feel “a little nerve-wracking,” she told CNN. “It’s like Times Square all of a sudden.” Still, it’s “definitely more exciting than anything else,” she said.
Several companies have cropped up to support the demand for extravagant festive displays.
Aleksandr Slatvitskii is the founder and co-owner of ShineCraft, which provides custom lighting designs, installation and electric services for its clients. Slatvitskii told CNN that he came to Brooklyn last year seeking asylum after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and started ShineCraft having run a similar lighting business in Russia. This year, he decorated 57 homes, including many in Dyker Heights.
In their designs, ShineCraft strives to create “something fresh,” Slatvitskii told CNN. “A bit different.”
Slatvitskii said the tradition is a good thing for the neighborhood, helping attract tourists to Dyker Heights. It also “produces a really nice atmosphere” in the area, he added.
One group of women, dressed in matching Santa hats while on a visit to the neighborhood from New Jersey, told CNN that it was one of their “bucket list” items.
“I think it’s incredible,” said Noreen Galliano, who had never seen the displays before before.
