La Vida Laura

If there’s one thing I love, it’s Christmas decorations; in my book, the more, the better. So when I moved to New York, Dyker Heights Christmas Lights was high on my list of must-visits. Tucked deep into Brooklyn, Dyker Heights is a neighborhood that, quite simply, loves Christmas. Many of the homes go all out, literally covered from top to bottom with lights and decorations.

Dyker Heights isn’t super accessible via subway so, along with my mom and sister, I grabbed a spot on A Slice of Brooklyn‘s Dyker Heights tour. The tour makes the whole experience pretty convenient from Manhattan: you meet in Union Square, then are whisked off to Dyker Heights (with a stop along the way in Bay Ridge, which also has some fantastic Christmas lights), and finally are brought right back to Union Square again at the end of the night.

Our tour guide popped in a video with clips from some classic movies and away we went. First stop, Bay Ridge, featuring some gorgeous stately mansions and one house with more blue lights than I’ve ever seen at once:

Next, it was on to the main attraction: Dyker Heights!

We stopped by the house of Lucy Spata, the woman who started the neighborhood tradition of over-the-top Christmas lights. Her home was, not surprisingly, one of the best decorated of the bunch:

We also saw the Polizzotto house, which features a fifteen-foot tall Santa:

And at the home of “Sam the Greek,” the entire facade is covered in the brightest of neon lights. There’s also a koi pond because…what’s Christmas without a koi pond?

I’m so glad I finally made the trek to Dyker Heights. The entire experience felt so very old school Brooklyn, and as a Christmas aficionado, it was right up my heavily bedecked street. To quote A Slice of Brooklyn’s motto: “Rockefeller Center? Fuhgettaboudit.”