NYC Tour Guides
Dyker Heights Christmas Lights: When to Go and Which Streets to Walk
The Brooklyn neighbourhood that decorates harder than anywhere else in New York — exactly which blocks to walk, what time to arrive, how to avoid the December crush, and how to visit without annoying the people who live there.
There is no official Christmas lights display in New York that competes with a handful of residential streets in southern Brooklyn. Dyker Heights isn’t organised, isn’t ticketed and isn’t marketed — homeowners simply started competing with each other decades ago and never stopped. Some now hire professional decorators.
It is genuinely worth the trip. Here’s how to do it properly.
Which streets
The concentration runs roughly between 11th and 13th Avenues, from 83rd to 86th Street. Within that:
- 84th Street between 11th and 12th Avenue — the most famous block, and the one with the largest, most elaborate displays. If you have twenty minutes, spend them here.
- 83rd and 85th Streets, same avenues — nearly as good and noticeably less crowded.
- 11th and 12th Avenues themselves — worth walking between the cross streets rather than cutting straight across.
A full loop of the main area is a 30–60 minute walk. You do not need a map; follow the light and the people.
When to go
This matters more than anything else on this page.
| Timing | What it’s like |
|---|---|
| Late November | Displays mostly up, crowds thin. The best window. |
| First two weeks of December | Peak New York holiday season. Very crowded. |
| Weeknights (Mon–Thu) in December | Noticeably calmer than weekends |
| December weekend evenings | Shoulder to shoulder on the pavements |
| Between Christmas and New Year | Busy again, but shorter queues than mid-December |
Arrive around 5pm. The lights are on by then but there’s still a little blue in the sky — which, apart from being the nicest time to see it, is also the only time your photos won’t be blown-out white blobs against pure black.
Photographing it
- Shoot in that blue-hour window, roughly 4:45–5:30pm in December.
- Turn your flash off. It will light the pavement and nothing else.
- Brace your phone against a railing or lamp post rather than raising the ISO.
- Get closer than you think. The wide shot of a whole house rarely works; a single over-decorated porch does.
Visiting without being a nuisance
People live here. Several thousand of them, on ordinary residential streets that receive hundreds of thousands of visitors in a five-week window. The neighbourhood has a complicated relationship with all this attention, and the difference between a welcome visitor and an unwelcome one is small and obvious:
- Stay on the pavement. Don’t walk up driveways, onto lawns or onto porches.
- Keep the noise down, especially after about 9pm.
- Don’t block driveways if you drive, and don’t idle outside houses.
- Take your rubbish with you. Coffee cups on the kerb are the main complaint residents raise every year.
Getting there
Dyker Heights is in south-west Brooklyn, 45–60 minutes from Midtown depending on traffic. The nearest subway is the D train to 71st Street, which leaves you a 15–20 minute walk from the main blocks — fine on the way there, less fun afterwards when you’re cold and it’s late.
This is the practical case for a car on this particular trip: the walk is the point and the transit connection isn’t great, so most people end up driving between areas and walking the Dyker Heights blocks themselves. Most lights tours pair it with the Manhattan holiday stops — the Rockefeller tree, the Fifth Avenue windows, Bryant Park — which are all clustered together and easy to see in an hour before heading south.
What to wear
More than you think. You’ll be standing still outdoors for an hour, in December, in a part of the city that is flat and open and catches the wind off the harbour. Proper coat, hat, gloves. Children in particular get cold much faster standing and looking than they do walking.
Displays are put up by individual homeowners and change every year — which houses go all out, and exactly when they switch on, is never fixed in advance.
Frequently asked questions
Where exactly are the Dyker Heights Christmas lights?
In Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, roughly between 11th and 13th Avenues and 83rd to 86th Streets. The single most famous block is 84th Street between 11th and 12th Avenue, where the largest displays are concentrated.
When do the Dyker Heights lights turn on?
Most displays go up around Thanksgiving and run into the first week of January. They switch on at dusk — around 5pm in December — and go off somewhere between 9pm and 11pm depending on the household. There's no official schedule; every house sets its own.
Is there an admission charge?
No. It's a residential neighbourhood, not an attraction. There's no ticket, no entrance and no organisers — just people who decorate their own homes. Which is exactly why visitors should behave like guests.
What is the best time to visit to avoid crowds?
Late November, or any Monday-to-Thursday evening. The first two weeks of December are the busiest stretch of the whole New York holiday season, and weekend evenings in Dyker Heights are shoulder to shoulder.
How long does it take to walk around?
Thirty minutes to an hour covers the main blocks at a comfortable pace. Add 45–60 minutes travel each way from Manhattan.