New York City is known for its big and bold holiday displays including the Rockefeller Center tree and the Fifth Avenue store window dressings – but it’s one small Brooklyn neighborhood that takes the title of ‘extraordinary’.
Every December, tens of thousands of visitors flock to Dyker Heights with its rows of houses decked out in over-the-top Christmas displays.
Homes between 11th and 13th Avenues and 83rd and 86th Streets are decorated with colored lights, inflatable snowmen, life-size nutcrackers, snowflake light shows and other flamboyant decorations.
By most accounts, the light displays became a neighborhood activity in the 1980s, and buses began bringing in tourists from Manhattan about a decade ago.
But resident Joyce Arpino told The Associated Press last year that it was difficult to even walk around in the neighborhood, likening it to the crowds in Manhattan about eight miles away.
Many have started to take advantage of the wildly-admired spectacle with some households placing charity donation boxes outside their homes and one family even opening their own hot chocolate stand.
Police officers often block off some of the streets so onlookers can gaze at the dazzling houses in safety
Here are some of the most festive displays Dyker Heights has to offer:
A house is decorated with an inflatable Santa and snowman in a reindeer-drawn sleigh in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn on Saturday
A Dyker Heights decked-out home is decorated with an inflatable Snoopy and Woodstock from The Peanuts
Tourists line up to take pictures of a two-story Santa as well as two giant wooden toy soldiers decorating one home
Clearly a main attraction every year, onlookers fill the front steps of the house to get a better looker at the display
Life-size candy canes deck the balcony of this Dyker Heights home as part of its annual Christmas display
Snowflakes decorate every window and a life-size nutcracker guards the door of this Dyker Heights house
One house went heavy on the inflatable characters, ranging from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to Olaf from ‘Frozen’
The decorated houses lie between 11th and 13th Avenues and 83rd and 86th Streets in Dyker Heights
Resident Joyce Arpino told The Associated Press last year that it was difficult to even walk around in the neighborhood, likening it to the crowds in Manhattan about eight miles away
A house in Dyker Heights opts for a majority of lights in gold and green for the neighborhood’s annual display
A house in Dyker Heights exhibits a symmetrical holiday light display with lit-up snowmen, angels and reindeer on both sides
While some homeowners opt for many lights and inflatables, other choose statues such as this house with a Little Drummer Boy and a snowman
Snowmen stacked one on top of the other, an elf playing a drum and a reindeer sit in front of one Dyker Heights home
A towering, gated home displays a gigantic wreath on a front window as well as two life-size toy wooden soldiers
A house in Dyker Heights decorates its front lawn with Dickens-era child carolers and a Nativity scene
Bright red candy canes lines the stair railings of two homes in Dyker Heights as a Nativity scene can be seen displayed
Some bus tours bring people in from Manhattan and play up the area’s Italian-American heritage, including stops at a nearby bakery for cannolis and hot chocolate
Dozens of tourists gather outside one Dyker Heights home decorated with every festive decoration imaginable
Angel carolers, lit-up snowflakes, shooting stars, nutcrackers and Santas are just some of the decorations at this house
By most accounts, the light displays became a neighborhood activity in the 1980s, and buses began bringing in tourists from Manhattan about a decade ago
A tour trolley shows people the houses decorated with Christmas lights and displays in Dyker Heights on Saturday
Giant snowflakes and life-size ornaments and baubles decorate the gate of one Dyker Heights home
A life-size Nativity complete with the Virgin Mary, Joseph, shepherds, three Wise Men and barn animals sits on display
Brightly-colored lights decorate homes in Dyker Heights beginning every year after Thanksgiving
One family in Dyker Heights takes up the challenge and decorates the tree trunks in front of their home with festive lights
One household went for a different approach and turned their home into a real-life Candyland
This Dyker Heights home takes a more simplistic approach in its annual Christmas lights display
Giant snowflakes and trees decorated in red, white and green lights grace one home in Dyker Heights
A lit-up Santa stands surrounded by mini Christmas trees as onlookers tour home displays in Dyker Heights
Visitors walk by a brightly-lit and decorated home in Dyker Heights as part of the neighborhood’s annual Christmas display
Police officers often block off some of the streets so onlookers can gaze at the dazzling houses in safety
A Dyker Heights home decorates every bush in its front yard with lights as part of its annual display
A couple gazes up at a Dyker Heights home decorated for the neighborhood’s annual Christmas lights display
A pair of neighbors in Dyker Heights opt for completely different Christmas light displays