PHOTOS: Dyker Heights decks its halls for another year of famed light displays

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for Dyker Heights.

The small south Brooklyn nabe — lauded as “Con Ed’s warmest heartthrob” and the “undisputed capital of Christmas pageantry” by the New York Times — has begun to deck its halls with this season’s round of larger-than-life holiday displays that, neighbors say, only get bigger and brighter each year.

“It’s a beautiful tradition; the spirit, the energy, everyone is just so happy,” local resident Renea Gargiulo, who started the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Facebook page “on a whim” four years ago, said last year. “It’s been something that I’ve attended every year traditionally and, being so close to the area and living in the neighborhood, I’ve always loved it.”

A yearly tradition since sometime in the late ‘80s – though no residents are really sure of when the lights sparked such a buzz – the decorative, dazzling and sometimes over-the-top lights recruit visitors from neighboring communities along with travelers from other states and even countries. Many of those visitors keep up with the festivities via Gargiulo’s page, which as of this season has close to 10,000 followers.

The sparkling spectacle – which can be seen anywhere from 10th Avenue to 12th Avenue across the 80s in the nabe – has even become an attraction on ticketed bus tours like A Slice of Brooklyn’s three-and-a-half-hour look at the “Dyker Lights.”

Displays typically begin to go up over Thanksgiving weekend, and tend to stay up well into the New Year, including everything from lights to inflatable characters as big as the houses themselves.

“It’s just a wonderful way to show off the community,” said Dyker Heights Civic Association President Fran Vella-Marrone. “I look forward to it every year.”

Additional reporting by Anna Spivak

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