The holiday season in New York City is like nowhere else, and the five boroughs treat their annual Christmas light decorations as a neighborhood sport.
The city transforms into one giant and festive walking tour from late November through New Year’s. Some spots turn their brownstones into Las Vegas with their Christmas lights, while others keep it classy and cozy.
If you’re trying to plan a night out to see the best of the city’s bright holiday lights, these NYC neighborhoods consistently deliver the most wow factor, with decorations plastered all across residents’ houses and apartment buildings.
Dyker Heights, Brooklyn
Dyker Heights in southeast Brooklyn is far and away the undisputed king of residential Christmas lights in NYC.Photo by Emily Davenport
This neighborhood in southeast Brooklyn is far and away the undisputed king of residential Christmas lights in NYC. Every holiday season, residents across Dyker Heights adorn their homes with high-wattage displays, ranging from life-size Santas and nutcrackers to entire front yards transformed into winter scenes.
The tradition has grown so big that national outlets routinely name “Dyker Lights” one of the best Christmas-light neighborhoods in the country. The most concentrated area remains the stretch around 83rd to 86th streets between 11th and 13th avenues, where the densest clusters of decorated houses are packed together.
Displays typically go up right after Thanksgiving and run through early January, with weeknights giving you the best shot at seeing everything without the peak weekend crowds. Tours operate nightly for people who want a guided route, but it is also completely free and walkable on your own.
Canarsie / Georgetown, Brooklyn
Down in Southeast Brooklyn, “Christmas Corner” is a genuine community tradition centered around one exceptionally decorated home.Photo by Robert Pearl
Down in Southeast Brooklyn, “Christmas Corner” is a genuine community tradition centered around one exceptionally decorated home. The centerpiece is Brooklyn’s Home for the Holidays display at East 72nd Street and Avenue K, where the owner builds a huge light-and-animatronic scene every year that draws families from all over the city.
It is not a whole neighborhood lit up like Dyker, but the scale of this single corner makes it feel like one.
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Continuing to prove that Brooklyn is lit for yuletime, Bay Ridge’s holiday flex is the 79th Street Holiday House, a year-round decorating project that turns into a full Christmas spectacle every December.
The house at 635 79th St. is loaded up with tens of thousands of lights and a packed front-yard display, and it has become such a neighborhood landmark that it routinely draws crowds on the scale of a mini Dyker Heights.
Howard Beach, Queens
Howard Beach is Queens’ most reliable residential Christmas lights destination, led by the Modafferi family display at 97-03 165th Ave. The Modafferis’ musical, high-effort light show, officially returns after Thanksgiving.
Once the Modafferi corner is glowing, plenty of other homes in Howard Beach light up nearby, so you can park once and either walk a few blocks or do a slow neighborhood loop by car.
Rockaway, Queens
Take Cross Bay Boulevard south from Howard Beach, and you’ll end up in Rockaway, another premier destination for light displays in Queens. Rockaway’s signature residential stop is The Little North Pole in Neponsit, a longtime community display that lights up a full front yard and facade with North Pole scenes, huge figures, and wall-to-wall string lights.
What makes Little North Pole special is that it feels like a neighborhood event, not just a random festive and shiny house. They have an annual formal lighting event in late November that hundreds of Rockaway residents attend, and if you are already planning a Queens light night, this is one of the most iconic spots in the borough.
Whitestone, Queens
Whitestone’s residential lights pull comes from one legendary house. The block-level destination is Santa’s Corner — also commonly dubbed the “House of a Thousand Lights” — the same long-running display at 166th Street and 23rd Avenue (166-04 23rd Ave.) created by retired FDNY Firefighter Kevin Lynch.Photo by Jenna Bagcal/QNS
Whitestone’s residential lights pull comes from one legendary house. The block-level destination is Santa’s Corner — also commonly dubbed the “House of a Thousand Lights” — the same long-running display at 166th Street and 23rd Avenue (166-04 23rd Ave.) created by retired FDNY Firefighter Kevin Lynch.
It’s been a Queens holiday pilgrimage for years, and it’s one of the city’s top house displays, with the yard and facade stacked in wall-to-wall lights, inflatables, and larger-than-life holiday figures.
Charleston, Staten Island
Staten Island’s crown jewel is Joe DiMartino’s Lights for Life house in Charleston, a massive residential display at 107 Sharrotts Rd. that doubles as a charity tradition for pediatric cancer care. The house remains one of the city’s biggest holiday setups, started in memory of DiMartino’s late wife, Debra Ann Martino, who was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Every year, DiMartino and his family fill the property with lights, animatronics and full yard scenes. Visitors are encouraged to donate as the display raises money for the Pediatric Cancer Center at Staten Island University Hospital.
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Manhattan might not have a Dyker-style sprawl, but the Upper East Side has a clean, classic residential tradition that still resonates. East 73rd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, lights up every season with coordinated trees and building-front decorations, essentially turning the whole block into a warm, glowing tunnel. It has been running for more than 20 years and is one of the few true house-and-apartment light “destinations” in the borough.
It is a quick walk, but it feels very New York: brownstones and elegant apartment entries dressed up without sliding into touristy midtown vibes. If you want polished photos and a calmer scene, this is your Manhattan stop.
Pelham Parkway / Throggs Neck, Bronx
The Bronx’s signature Christmas lights tradition was the Garabedian “Christmas House” on Pelham Parkway North and Westervelt Avenue. This decades-old display used to be the borough’s guaranteed holiday stop. For 2025, though, the Garabedian family has confirmed the full show will be dark again this season while repairs continue, with hopes of bringing it back in a future year.
So if you’re making a five-borough run, Pelham Parkway is still the Bronx name to know, just with the clear heads-up that the famous house is on pause right now. If you still want a Bronx residential lights drive this year, locals often point toward Throggs Neck, particularly on Hollywood Avenue, as the borough’s other festive pocket.