NEW YORK CITY Christmas displays draw some bah-humbugs

Associated Press

NEW YORK

It’s a neighborhood Christmas display with New York City attitude: big, brash, loud and over-the-top.

Blazing lights, giant toy soldiers, angels, snowmen, wise men, Santas and piped-in Sinatra caroling form an all-out barrage on the senses from nearly every house in Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights neighborhood, an annual extravaganza that draws thousands of tourists by the car and busload.

But it has some residents wishing for a silent night.

“As pretty as it can be, it’s difficult,” says Linda Rebmann, 72, who has lived in Dyker Heights all her life and has only an unlit cranberry wreath on her home.

Nobody is talking about pulling the plug on the displays, which are a source of neighborhood pride. But there has been extra grumbling this season, especially after parking spots usually used by residents were blocked off for tour buses.

“This close to Christmas, you can’t walk. It’s like Manhattan,” says resident Joyce Arpino, 55. She stopped decorating inside her windows because gawkers would peer inside and rap on the glass. Tourists used to park in front of her house or even in her driveway until she set out orange traffic cones.

“I don’t want to sound like a Scrooge,” she says, “but it’s horrible.”