Every holiday season, people head to Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights neighborhood to see private homes get fully decked out.
Anadolu via Getty Images
New York City holiday light displays are a magical wonder to behold. Each season, certain venue put on illuminated outdoor shows aligning its streets or pathways or within interior settings. Check their websites for ticket pricing and more information and bundle up before heading out.
Lightscape, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
“Sea of Light” by ITHACA Studio is among the illuminated fixtures at Lightscape at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Jeremy Weine
Marking its fifth season in 2025, this bright winter trail at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden draws inspiration from the garden’s flora and fauna to presentation an enchanted forest experience. This year’s format for Lightscape features new and returning works of light art, with installations and landscapes with a redesigned trail, curated soundtrack and special dining and drinking offerings.
Nineteen installations are on view. Display highlights include Winter Cathedral by Mandylights, a reimagined Sea of Light by ITHACA Studio and a new fountain show in the garden’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden by Sense Effects.
Food and beverage options cater to visitors of all ages. They range from sit-down dining to grab-and-go treats. The Lightscape Lodge and the Lightscape Bar will sport curated food and drink menus by the garden’s dining partners, Union Square Events and Restaurant Associates in the garden’s Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café. Trailside pop-ups offer warm beverages and sweet and savory handheld treats.
Lightscape is on view now through January 4, 2026.
Lights on the Cobbles Presented by Baccarat, Meatpacking District
The Meatpacking District is the US flagship location of Baccarat. This holiday season, visitors and locals can see a stunning chandelier installation on “Lights on the Cobbles Presented by Baccarat.”
© BrakeThrough Media
Manhattan’s Meatpacking Business Improvement District ushers in their neighborhood’s annual holiday light installation. The 2025 edition consists of a 15-foot installation cradling an 84-light Baccarat Zénith chandelier that’s suspended steps away from the Baccarat U.S. flagship store at 33 Ninth Ave.
This Zénith Chandelier, standing at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street, is adorned with 3,000 pendants, including 2,000 in signature Baccarat red crystal. It is view now through January 16, 2026.
Additonally, the Meatpacking District’s “snowpeople” installation is spread out across the neighborhood, along with a colonnade of free-form neon lights and bouncing shapes.
Also, within this district, ARTECHOUSE will exhibit their “Holiday Special” now through January 4, 2026. This presentation reimagines the magic of the season through art and technology. It will showcase “Spectacular Factory,” a holiday workshop, and “Tingle Bells,” a series of playful interactives in one multisensory celebration.
Saks Fifth Avenue’s Holiday Light Show
For 2025, Saks Fifth Avenue has brought back its famous holiday light show.
Saks Fifth Avenue
After a 2024 hiatus, Saks Fifth Avenue brought back their popular holiday light show that’s projected on their front-facing exterior along Fifth Avenue.
For 2025, the larger-than-life display has the theme, “Holiday Your Way.” It’s said to be an ode to the ways in which customers spend the holidays.
The reimagined light show presents an illuminated symphony with dozens of gleaming ornaments shaped like diamonds and precious gems. Some of these picturesque gems soar up to two stories tall with eye-catching two-way mirror effects. They all dance to a medley of songs including the Paul McCartney song, “Wonderful Christmastime,” and Rihanna’s “Diamonds.” The show ends with fireworks and the playing of the “New York Groove” by the late KISS guitarist, Ace Frehley.
This light show will run nightly through January 4, 2026.
Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday window displays along 49th Street will present an array of holiday scenes within picturesque New York City destinations. They include an artisanal Sweet Treats in a bakery; Traveling Home, via a taxi overflowing with gifts; a glamorous Big Night at the theater; a snowy Winter’s Dream in Central Park; and a festive Advent Townhouse, highlighting classic New York City architecture.
In honor of the Rockettes’ centenary this year, some of the luxury retailer’s display windows will present the troupe’s memorable costumes and original sketches.
A house is seriously decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments in Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights neighborhood.
AFP via Getty ImagesDyker Heights Christmas Lights
Residents within this neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn continue their longtime tradition of over-the-top holiday decorating of their homes. Their elaborate efforts bring in many onlookers.
Along with multiple strands of multi-colored and twinkling lights, visitors might see life-sized figures of Santas, nutcrackers, toy soldiers and snowmen.
Its decorative origin is commonly credited to a Dyker Heights resident named Lucy Spata with starting this elaborate holiday house decorating in 1986. The tradition usually starts after Thanksgiving and ends right after New Year’s Eve.
For getting there, many sources list between 11th to 13th avenues, which is also known as Dyker Heights Blvd, from 83rd to 86th streets. By subway, you can take D train to 79th Street station, then take a 15-minute walk to the area, or the R train to 86th Street or Bay Ridge-95th Street, followed by a 10-minute walk there.
Another option for getting to Dyker Heights is with a tour company. The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour picks up passengers in Manhattan and buses them to the location. A Slice of Brooklyn offers a similar tour, with a stop at Spata’s house. New York Tours by Foot offers a walking excursion to the area.
New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Nights
The New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Nights series accompanies their annual Holiday Train Show.
New York Botanical Garden
In The Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden shines every year with their Holiday Train Show. For 2025, the public garden has an add-on to this ticketed event called “Holiday Train Nights.”
On certain evenings, now through January 10, 2026, NYBG hosts this after-dark celebration where attendees can enjoy seasonal cocktails and mocktails inside the Haupt Conservatory. This year’s edition also features the garden’s “Bar Car,” an age 21+ bar, at their Hudson Garden Grill Patio.
Seeing the NYBG’s Holiday Train Show is a must. On view now through January 11, 2026, model trains zip through a magical landscape of New York City landmarks crafted entirely from natural materials including bark, leaves and acorns. The exhibition now marks its 34th year by debuting two new replicas — Central Park’s Delacorte Theater and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Shine Bright at Hudson Yards Presented by Wells Fargo
“Shine Bright at Hudson Yards Presented by Wells Fargo” brings out the holiday decor and programming at this Midtown property.
Hudson Yards
Hudson Yards, a mixed-use neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side, has rung in its annual light display on view now through January 7, 2026. The offering is paired with special holiday programming and performances and extended holiday shopping hours.
Shine Bright at Hudson Yards Presented by Wells Fargo turns this major retail location within a sparkling toy land. Along with more than 2 million twinkling lights, its décor encompasses 725 evergreen trees and eight 11-foot tall toy soldiers. A 32-foot hot air balloon centerpiece is suspended in the venue’s Great Room.
The adjacent Vessel is also illuminated. Santa Claus comes The Shops at Hudson Yards on weeknights now through December 23, from 5 to 8 p.m., on Level 3. Visits with Santa are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In celebrating Hanukkah, a Menorah lighting celebration with Chabad of Midtown happens on December 15 on Hudson Yards’ Public Square & Gardens.
Other Hanukkah lightings in NYC are at the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The Bronx Zoo’s Holiday Lights
The Bronx Zoo’s “Holiday Lights” turns this Bronx attraction into a luminous wonderland.
Terria Clay © WCS
The Bronx Zoo’s float at the recent Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade gave a sneak peek into the zoo’s Holiday Lights event.
Held on select dates now through January 4, 2026, this illuminating celebration turns this longtime zoo into a winter wildlife wonderland. This year, the family-friendly event features new additions and signature experiences.
The new Freeze Zone will offer icy action fun with a snow tube slide, an illuminated ice-themed throne and virtual snowball throwing. The Enchanted Sea puts on a lively undersea world with interactive floor projections, ocean-themed light panels, a jellyfish celebration in lights, and puppetry.
The Lantern Safaris section will have visitors passing along more than 400 glowing wildlife lanterns spread across six geographically-themed lantern trails. They can also purchase warming treats and beverages at in-house refreshment stations.