‘Tis the season of light and joy, and one Georgetown resident knows that better than anyone.
Twenty-one-year-old Austin Ferrazzano of East 72nd Street creates dazzling annual displays for Christmas, complete with animatronics, statues, signs and, of course, lots and lots of lights.
This year, the display is larger than ever before, with three new display cases set up in his driveway –depicting a penguin wonderland, a “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” scene and a Night Before Christmas” scene.
“It brings a smile to people’s faces; it makes me happy and that’s all I can ask for,” Ferrazzano told the Canarsie Courier in an interview. “No price is worth more than the happiness that I give to people.”
Ferrazzano, whose day job is in balloon wholesale, has been creating the festive holiday displays since he was about 10 years old. Back then, he decorated his family’s old house for around three to four years, before moving to and starting to decorate his current home in Georgetown for eight years.
Every year, Ferrazzano spends all of November putting up his Christmas and Hanukkah decorations, which oftentimes are homemade. The decorations cover the entire exterior of his house, his entire front lawn, his driveway and even his garage.
“I call it a hobby, I suppose,” he said. “Others call it an obsession. I call it a hobby.”
The knack for decorating runs in his family. His mother was the one who started the displays when Ferrazzano and his younger brother, Brady, were little. Her displays were much smaller, he said, but the boys loved them just the same.
“It meant a lot to us,” he said.
Now, his brother decorates the inside of their house, while their mother decorates her school classroom. And, outside their home, Ferrazzano climbs ladders and trees to string lights all the way from the ground to the roof of their house.
“We do it as a family,” he said. “It’s something that brings us together.”
Ferrazzano’s display, called Brooklyn’s Home for the Holidays, will be up through the first week in January. The lights and music go on every night from 5 p.m. until about 11 p.m., weather permitting. There are also displays for several other holidays, including Halloween, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and the Fourth of July.
“It makes everyone happy,” Ferrazzano said. “It brings a smile to my face that I can make everyone kind of forget their problems and just enjoy the simple things.”
