This makes me feel Connected Delighted Heard at an Shared Collective scale
Dyker Heights Christmas Lights
Every Christmas a neighborhood in Brooklyn celebrates by heavily decorating their houses.
Dyker Heights is a neighborhood in Brooklyn where every Christmas residents put up spectacular displays of light and decorations in celebration of Christmas. The streets are so filled with these elaborate and awesome decorations it has become a tourist destination and fun place to drive around for New Yorkers every year. One of the well-known pioneers of this is Lucy Spata, with her famed house on 84th street where just about every inch of the property is decorated. The Spata’s have been decorating for more than 40 years and add a little more each year. In addition to keeping the family tradition going strong and putting smiles on thousands of kids’ faces from around the world, the Spata’s use this fame to give back to the community through charities. On the same block, the Polizzotto’s decorate their home with larger than life displays including a 15-foot-tall Santa Claus, and even taller nutcrackers. The Polizzotto family are also known as one of the pioneers of the Christmas lights tradition.
Contributor notes
What is surprising, refreshing, most interesting?
Today there are organized tours that take people around the neighborhood to look at all the decorations however the “event” began, and still is, something that is put together by the people living there. There is something very down to earth and almost organic about the way it is set up. You don’t need tickets or anything you can just go and drive or walk around in awe without having to worry about when to leave or arrive.
Key Insights? What can we learn from this?
The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights is a time of year that brings communities together on different levels. There is the community of the actual residents that put up the light show who find joy in bringing joy to many people. There is also the more general community of the people coming to see the decorations that have the shared experience with the people around them of amazement.