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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
When it comes to bright lights, there’s the strip in Las Vegas, there’s the sun, and then there’s Frank Seddio’s house during the holidays.
Brooklyn’s Democratic Party Chairman flipped the switch on the beloved Christmas display at his Flatlands Avenue home in Canarsie on Dec. 8, giving life to a $350,000 collection of lights and animatronics that hasn’t stopped growing since Frank Guarino began the tradition in 1963.
“It was really beautiful,” said Mill Basin mom Sandra Custodio, who saw Seddio’s Christmas display for the first time that night. “He must have some electric bill.”
Every year, the Brooklyn Democratic boss and his family add some new, robotic wonder to the luminous display, and this year’s big addition was a roving Zeppelin blimp, which floated back and forth over the winter wonderland that is Seddio’s front yard.
It joined perennial favorites like a teddy-bear-stuffed Ferris wheel, ice-skating Smurfs, and a hot-air balloon piloted by Mickey Mouse and two of his reindeer buddies.
The lights and displays near E. 93rd Street will continue to emit about a million watts of holiday spirit until Jan. 6, clicking on at 5 pm nightly.
But the annual inauguration of Seddio’s holiday scene has grown to become a party of its own. The politico was joined by two choirs, from PS 115 and the Marry Queen of Heaven Church, and nearly two thousand spectators on the crisp and snowing Sunday evening.
Most of the crowd came from Canarsie, and the nearby Mill Basin and Marine Park neighborhoods, but there was one special spectator who traveled across three, chilly continents to have a look at Seddio’s beloved and bright tradition.
“Santa showed up,” said Seddio. “The snow was coming down and the kids were freaking out. It was like a movie, it was magnificent.”