Dyker Heights Holiday Lights Tour Christmas Magic in NYC
Licensed guideCoach travelMax 55
From $75 per person
Holiday Markets and the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights
A Dyker Heights holiday market does not exist. There is no market on these blocks, no stalls, no organised anything — the display is a residential street, not a venue, and nobody has ever run a market on it. What there is instead is worth knowing about, and so is the real winter market that several of these evenings actually finish at.
The short answer, and what there is instead
Anything describing a Dyker Heights holiday market is describing something else, usually one of the Manhattan markets a tour visits afterwards. The neighbourhood itself offers two things: households selling refreshments from their own driveways, and food trucks working the corners on the busy nights. Both are informal, seasonal and cash only.
That is not a disappointment. It is the difference between a place that organised itself around visitors and a place that simply has visitors, and it is a large part of why these blocks feel like they do.
What the residents sell from their driveways
Hot chocolate — the mainstay, usually a few dollars a cup, poured
from a tent or a table in a driveway on 84th and 83rd Streets.
Snacks and sweets — whatever the household has made, sold beside the
drinks.
Printed shirts — a small souvenir trade has grown up on the busier
corners.
Food trucks — one reviewer counted them on "almost every corner" on
a December evening, and ice-cream vans park up running snow machines.
Charity boxes — some houses collect for a cause rather than selling
anything, which is optional and always marked.
Bring cash in small notes. There is no card machine on a driveway and there is nowhere on the route to draw money.
Bryant Park's Winter Village
The nearest thing to a real Christmas market in this story sits in Midtown Manhattan. The Winter Village at Bryant Park runs holiday shops in custom kiosks through to early January, around a 17,000 square foot ice rink that is free to skate on if you bring your own skates and charges for hire if you do not.
It matters here because it is where several of these evenings end. Rather than being set down at the kerb you left from, you step off into a market with a rink in the middle of it — which for a lot of people turns a tour into a night out.
Four places you might reasonably mean by 'the market', and only one of them is a market.
| Where | What it is | Which tours reach it |
|---|---|---|
| Dyker Heights driveways | Hot chocolate, snacks, shirts. Cash only | Every tour that stops on the blocks |
| Bryant Park Winter Village | Holiday shops and a free-admission rink, into early January | Several coach departures end here |
| Rockefeller Center | The tree and the rink rather than a market, but the same instinct | Two coach departures end here |
| Hudson Yards and The Vessel | Lit architecture and the shops beneath it | The two Portuguese and Spanish departures |
The tours that finish at a market
Some of the coach departures set down at Bryant Park rather than back in the street they left from, and others finish beside the Rockefeller Center tree. That is a real difference between otherwise similar evenings, and it is worth checking before you book if you want the night to carry on afterwards.
The bus tours page lists which ends where. One reviewer booking a departure that was meant to finish at Rockefeller Center was set down at Bryant Park instead, so treat the end point as the operator's intention rather than a guarantee.
Doing both in one evening
It works, and it is the case for the later departures. The 4:15 and 4:30 starts get you to Brooklyn as the lights come on and back into Midtown by about eight, with the market still open and an hour or two to use it. A 7:00 start does not leave that room.
If you are making a night of it, book a departure that ends where you want to be rather than one that ends where you started. The dates page lists the start times side by side.
The other Manhattan markets
Bryant Park is the one these tours touch, but it is not the only winter market in the city, and the others are within a subway ride of every meeting point listed here. If a market is the main thing you want and the lights are the extra, plan the market first and pick your departure around it.
If it is the other way round — and for most people arriving under this search it is — then the lights are in Brooklyn and everything else is a bonus. What the evening involves starts there.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Christmas market there?
No — there is no Dyker Heights holiday market, and anything describing one is wrong. What there is instead is residents selling hot chocolate and snacks from their driveways, and three of the coach tours finish at a real Midtown winter market. Both are covered on the holiday markets page.
Do the houses charge to look?
No, and none of them asks for anything. Some households run a donation box for charity, and some sell hot chocolate and snacks from their driveways during the season, but both are optional. Bring a few dollars in cash if you want either.
Are drinks and snacks included?
Not on the coach tours — food and drink are listed as excluded on every one of them. Two of the private vehicles include bottled water and one includes drinks and all taxes and fees. On the ground, the driveway stands take cash.
Where are the nearest toilets?
There are none on the display streets — it is a residential neighbourhood, not a venue. Several of the coaches have a restroom on board and one stops for a break on the way out, which is worth checking on the listing before you book. Plan on going before you leave Midtown.
Finish the evening somewhere worth finishing
Several departures set down at a Midtown winter market instead of the corner they collected you from.
A Dyker Heights and DUMBO tour covers the Brooklyn half of this; where it puts you down afterwards is the part worth choosing deliberately. Every departure is on Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tours.
Tours that end at a Midtown winter market
Dyker Heights Christmas Lights and NYC Skyline View Bus Tour
Licensed guideCoach travelMax 150
From $69 per person
NYC Holiday Lights and Dyker Heights Luxury Bus Tour
Licensed guideHeated vehicleCoach travel
From $75 per person