Dyker Heights Lights 2025: The Most Festive, Over-The-Top Houses We Saw This Year

The annual Christmas lights celebration is back, and it's wild—and popular—as ever

‘Tis the season for tidings of comfort and joy, cozy nights with loved ones, and thousands of people from all over the world descending upon the normally quiet streets of Dyker Heights to gawk at the maximalist displays of holiday cheer and ingenuity covering the homes and lawns in this deceptively sizable slice of suburbia in southeast Brooklyn.

The annual celebration, dating back over 30 years, has become simply known as “Dyker Heights Lights.” And while, yes, there are certainly millions of literal lights covering the houses here, most places also add multiple inflatable, plastic, or—a recent trend—”kinetic,” singing statues of Christmas characters traditional (Santa, Rudolph, Baby Jesus) and less so (Minnie Mouse, Oscar the Grouch, Skelly the Skeleton), into the mix as well.

The Most Festive, Over-The-Top Christmas Lights in Dyker Heights This Year

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

Some houses crank carols, some set up tents in the driveway and sell $5 cups of powdered hot chocolate, some blast fake snow out onto the hordes of selfie-taking tourists.

And hordes there certainly are! Tour groups of 30 or more are an increasingly common sight here, bussed in by companies that, for example, charge $75 a person for a ride from Bryant Park and a 90-minute guided walk around the neighborhood, which is, frankly, crazy.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

“We used to come all the time when we were kids, but as it got more popular, we stopped. It just got too crowded,” Bensonhurst resident Jeta Kadrijaj told Brooklyn Magazine. “I haven’t been in at least six years, but we came tonight to show our kids and for, you know, the nostalgia. But, yeah…it’s too crowded.”

So, maybe opt for a weeknight visit if you want to beat the crowds at their own game.

The boundaries down here are pretty elastic, but the most concentrated Dyker Heights Lights experience can be found between 82nd and 85th Streets, and 11th and 13th Avenues. It’s an easy 15-minute walk from the D train station at 79th Street.

Here are some of the wildest, most over-the-top displays we spotted at this year’s celebration.