There’s one beloved holiday tradition that the COVID-19 pandemic will not stop: former Democratic party boss Frank Seddio’s holiday light display in Canarsie, which will go on with social distancing guidelines in place, he told Brooklyn Paper.
“It’s time to bring some good cheer,” Seddio said. “This is the time to have hope that things will turn around and that we will be able to not just celebrate the holiday or celebrate our lights, but celebrate life again.”
The lifelong Canarsie resident and former chairperson of the Kings County Democratic Party has been lighting up his Flatlands Avenue home for over three decades — continuing a tradition his uncle began that is said to have inspired the famous “Dyker Lights” display in Dyker Heights.
“There is no place else that can have this kind of animated display,” Seddio said.
The $350,000 array near the corner of on E. 93rd Street will mostly be left unchanged since last year, with 100,000 lights and over 200 animated figures to see, he said.
“We pretty much kept everything the same because of the virus this year,” he said. “The display is as it usually was.”
The Seddios are dedicating this year’s display to Frank Scollo — the late owner of beloved Pizza D’Amore, which has multiple locations across southern Brooklyn — and all of the many New Yorkers who have died from COVID-19.
Because of the pandemic, the Seddios will not host an opening ceremony or any live performances this year, but members of the public are still invited to check out the lights — as long as they social distance and wear masks, according to the politico.
“We have invited people to come asking that they wear masks,” Seddio said. “We won’t have any of the normal performances we have.”
After over a month of set up, the Seddio family holiday will turn on the light display on Dec. 6 and keep them on through the holiday season, which will hopefully mark the beginning of the end of COVID-19.
“I am especially hopeful that this will be the start of the end of this pandemic,” Seddio said.
