A Slice of Brooklyn’s Christmas Lights & Cannoli Tour

Nov. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Brooklyn, NY (November 1, 2010) – “Rockefeller Center? FUHGETTABOUDIT!” That’s the official slogan of “A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours” (www.asliceofbrooklyn.com) as they prepare for their annual “Christmas Lights and Cannoli Tour” this December.  The three and a half hour tour starts in Manhattan and highlights the festive homes of Dyker Heights, the Italian-American section of Brooklyn made famous in the PBS documentary “Dyker Lights” which is the area’s nickname during the month of December.

Each year, over 100,000 people flock to the area to see dazzling lights, thirty foot tall wooden soldiers, animatronic figures, glowing nativity scenes and much more. Some of the homes featured on the tour are so over-the-top that they’ve even been featured on The Learning Channel’s “Crazy Christmas Lights.”

Besides Dyker Heights, the tour visits the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn where homes are so lavishly draped in lights that one homeowner on the tour has an annual electric bill of $10,000 for the month of December alone! The tour ends with a stop at Mona Lisa Pastry Shop where folks get to sample Brooklyn’s best cannoli and cappuccino. On the ride back to Manhattan, nostalgic Christmas television specials are shown on the TV screens of the bus like The Colgate Comedy Hour, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Sonny & Cher and more.

Started in 2006 by native Brooklynite Tony Muia, the tour was a labor of love as well as the natural next step after launching the wildly popular “A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour” in 2005.

“I wanted to create an easy way for visitors to hop on a bus in Manhattan and experience the holiday displays of Brooklyn from a native’s perspective” says Muia, who was dubbed "Mister Brooklyn himself" by NBC's Today Show. “In fact, when I started doing the Christmas tour four years ago, nobody was bothering to go pick people up in Manhattan and bring them to Brooklyn. So I took it upon myself to be its official ambassador for the holidays.”

The “Christmas Lights & Cannoli Tour” was prominently featured on Samantha Brown’s “Holidays in New York” special in December of 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1JiAZPiPBg). It was also featured on GMTV in the UK, RAI in Italy as well as on German and Spanish television.  Muia, whose tour is the only Brooklyn guided bus tour of the area, is amazed but not surprised at all the press coverage the tour has received.



“As Brooklynites, we never went to Rockefeller Center to see the tree. We’d drive around Dyker Heights to see the most amazing displays in the world. We always knew they were special. It’s great to see those same families, those same homes and those same displays still going strong. It’s so rewarding showing people from around the country, and around the world, what Brooklynites have known for over twenty years.”

Besides doing Christmas tours for the general public, Muia and his tour guides act as hop-on guides for tour operators from around the area who come with their own large coach buses. They will often start with dinner at a local Italian restaurant to complete the experience.

“The best part has been showing people who love incredible Christmas decorations, and who have never been to Brooklyn before, how festive things can really get in his hometown.” Adds Muia, “Who am I kidding?  The best part is hearing folks say ‘Rockefeller Center? FUHGETTABOUDIT!’”

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A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours is the only company in NYC that conduct guided bus tours of Brooklyn's favorite foods, unique neighborhoods, historic landmarks and famous movie locations. Passengers get picked up and dropped off in Manhattan.