Photos of the wildest 2021 Dyker Heights Christmas lights

'It's crazy!' After a lackluster 2020, the Dyker Heights Christmas display is back in a big way

Photo by Scott Lynch

In Dyker Heights, the sidewalks are once again swarming with happy gawkers from all over Brooklyn (and the world), here to see—and take selfies with—the dazzling Christmas decorations the neighborhood has been putting up every year for several decades now.

“We heard about it on the internet and thought we’ve got to check it out,” said Ollie Morgan on Friday, visiting NYC from Wales with his companion Olivia Hawthorne. “We took a taxi from Manhattan, which cost like $70, but I love the [over-the-topness]. The OTT is very, very good here.” Hawthorne agreed. “It’s better than I imagined. We don’t have this in the U.K., it’s not like a big thing. We have Christmas, but the lights are not as … huge as this.”

There were organized tour groups, tons of little kids, trucks selling popcorn and hot cocoa, and volunteer traffic patrols courtesy of CERT, the Community Emergency Response Team. Most of the biggest displays are installed professionally, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Photo by Scott Lynch

Sarah Zutter from Bay Ridge is a Dyker Heights Lights regular, and arrived on Friday blasting Christmas carols from her backpack with her running group, the Grand Army Pacers.

“We make a run here to Dyker Heights every year. I usually come several times,” she said. “So this is my early visit and I’ll be back again next weekend and hopefully a couple more times too. It’s much better than last year, last year was a little sad. There were still some homes lit up, you could see they were trying to keep the cheer going, but it didn’t compare to what it usually is.”

Photo by Scott Lynch

First timers Douglas McQueen and Kendra Dacey came down from Crown Heights and were blown away by the spectacle. “We have this little one now, so we came out,” said Dacey, pointing to her son Calvin, whose favorite decoration was an extremely modest blue polar bear. “And it’s crazy!”

McQueen chimed in: “We’ve heard a lot about it, and, yeah, it’s very impressive man,” he said. “This is awesome. I mean, come on, the whole neighborhood’s lit up! It’s a real-deal New York experience.”

There are lights all over the neighborhood but the real show is between 83rd and 85th Streets, and 11th and 13th Avenues. It’s an easy 15-minute walk from the 79th Street D train station.

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