New York isn’t just a city of neighborhoods — it’s a city of blocks. Each week, Metro picks a corner of Gotham and gives readers a snapshot of what we’ve found.
The outrageous holiday decorations that make Dyker Heights a magnet for tour buses can be traced back to Lucy Spata, who in 1986 first brought out the angels and Santas her late mother had used at their Bensonhurst home.
“It was too dead for me. It didn’t look like Christmas,” Spata recalled.
Brides posed for photos in front of her Las Vegas-bright Christmas displays. Kids cheered her 400-pound nephew dressed as Santa. Neighbors hated it.
Five years later, the Polizzottos, across the street, put up 30-foot tall toy soldiers and a towering Santa Claus. Other homeowners joined in over time.
“A lot of people moved out,” she explained, “and the people moving in, they knew what the block was about.”
Some grouse about the added traffic or trash tourists leave behind — and the occasional bathroom request. But most enjoy the attention.
“It breaks the monotony,” said Mike Pantetis, 57, who once invited a busload of Japanese tourists into his glittering home.
