There’s lots of holiday happenings in Dyker Heights

December 7, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Fran Vella-Marrone, president of the Dyker Heights Civic Association, is busy planning for the organization’s big meeting on Tuesday, when members will be bringing donations for the Toys for Tots charity drive. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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Dyker Heights is famous the world over for the gigantic Christmas decorations gracing the front lawns of local homeowners and the crowds of tourists who flock to the neighborhood each December to the bright lights.

But the community also plays host other holiday happenings that are smaller in scale but are just as heartfelt.

On Friday, Dec. 8, the 13th Avenue Merchants Association is holding its annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. The ceremony, which is also sponsored by Investors Bank, will take place on 13th Avenue between 74th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway, starting at 7 p.m.

The Dyker Heights Civic Association is helping to spread the word about the merchants’ celebration. Civic Association President Fran Vella-Marrone sent out an email blast to scores of people on her mailing list urging people to attend the event.

Vella-Marrone and the civic association are busy planning their own Christmas season event.

Working with the 68th Precinct Community Council, the civic association is collecting holiday gifts for a Toys for Tots charity drive to take place at a joint meeting of the two organizations on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at Redeemer St. John’s Lutheran Church, 939 83rd St., starting at 7 p.m.

Toys that have been brought over the past few weeks to various drop-off locations in the community will be gathered by the civic association and precinct council to be donated to the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Hamilton, the military base in Bay Ridge, and to Reaching Out Community Services Inc., a charity in Bensonhurst.

“Once again, our association is actively involved in the Toys for Tots program,” Vella-Marrone wrote in an email. “New, unwrapped toys donated by our general membership will be collected that evening.”

The various events — the 13th Avenue tree lighting, the Toys for Tots drive, and the Christmas lights displays — are all part of the holiday season in Dyker Heights.

The community is perhaps most famous for the extravagant Christmas displays homeowners install outside their dwellings each December.

Homeowners proudly mount enormous, eye-catching, colorful, imaginative holiday displays on their front lawns with thousands of twinkling lights, giant inflatable Santas, nutcrackers, snowmen and dancing angels.

Thousands of tourists, including many who come from thousands of miles away, descend on Dyker Heights during the Christmas season each year to take in the community’s famous holiday displays.

The holiday lights display can be found in the area of Dyker Heights located between 11th and 14th avenues, from 82nd to 86th Street.