The Story of the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights

 

Every December, a quiet residential neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn becomes one of New York City’s most extraordinary holiday attractions.

Entire houses disappear beneath thousands of lights. Giant nutcrackers stand guard over front lawns. Santas, angels, reindeer, animated figures, and elaborate nativity scenes fill properties from sidewalk to rooftop.

This is Dyker Heights at Christmas.

Today, visitors come from around the world to see it. But the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights were never created as a tourist attraction. They grew out of something much more New York: neighborhood tradition, family pride, and the determination of homeowners to celebrate Christmas their own way.

Before the Christmas Lights: The Story of Dyker Heights

Dyker Heights itself dates to the late 19th century. Developer Walter Loveridge Johnson began developing the area in the 1890s as a residential community of substantial detached homes, many with yards and generous lots.

That architecture would eventually become an important part of the Christmas tradition. Unlike Manhattan’s apartment buildings or Brooklyn’s rows of brownstones, Dyker Heights gave homeowners something unusual in New York City: houses, lawns, porches, roofs and fences that could all become part of a display.

For most of the year, it remains a residential Brooklyn neighborhood.

December is another matter.

When Did the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Begin?

There isn’t a single uncontested starting date.

Accounts of elaborate holiday decorating in this part of Brooklyn stretch back decades, and organized tours were visiting decorated neighborhoods in southern Brooklyn by the mid-1980s.

But one name became inseparable from the modern Dyker Heights Christmas Lights tradition:

Lucy Spata.

Spata’s home on 84th Street became famous for an enormous Christmas display filled with lights, angels, soldiers, Santa figures, and other decorations. Multiple accounts trace her famous display to the mid-1980s and describe it as a tribute to her mother, who loved Christmas decorations.

What began at individual homes gradually spread.

Neighbors decorated. Displays became larger. More visitors arrived. Television crews came. Tour buses followed.

Eventually, a neighborhood Christmas tradition became a New York City attraction.

The Famous Homes of 84th Street

Two homes in particular became closely associated with the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights.

The Spata house, at 1152 84th Street, became known for an exuberant collection of lights, angels, soldiers, Santas and animated decorations.

Across the street, the Polizzotto family’s display became famous for its Toyland theme and enormous animated figures. Historical accounts describe giant soldiers, horses, dancers and an enormous Santa as parts of the display.

These weren’t simply strings of Christmas lights.

They were theatrical productions built onto private homes.

And they helped establish the standard for what Dyker Heights would become.

From Neighborhood Tradition to International Attraction

As word spread, the crowds grew.

Newspapers covered the displays. Television programs arrived. Photos circulated around the world. What had once been primarily a Brooklyn tradition increasingly attracted visitors who had never before ventured into this part of the borough.

Today the most famous displays are concentrated around the streets and avenues in the heart of Dyker Heights, particularly in the vicinity of 83rd through 86th Streets and 11th through 13th Avenues.

The scale can be difficult to appreciate until you are standing there.

Some displays cover virtually every available part of a property. Many of the largest installations are now professionally designed and installed. Yet these are still people’s homes, not a corporate theme park.

That’s an important distinction.

There is no single official Dyker Heights Christmas Lights show.

The neighborhood itself is the attraction.