Where Are The Best Holiday Lights In Ridgewood?

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — For many of us, taking in our neighbors’ outdoor holiday lighting displays and other decorative touches is as much a part of the season as exchanging gifts and singing Christmas carols.

Patch and T-Mobile are partnering to help you compile a list of lights around town that deserve a drive-by.

There’s a good reason twinkling holiday lights and colorful displays make us feel good, according to mental health experts.

“It does create that neurological shift that can produce happiness,” Psychologist Deborah Serani, a senior professor at New York’s Adelphi University, told NBC’s “Today” show. “I think anything that takes us out of our normal habituation, the normal day in, day out ... signals our senses, and then our senses measure if it’s pleasing or not.”

Decorating for the holidays “will spike dopamine, a feel-good hormone,” she said. “For a lot of us, Christmas is a magical time, it’s a time of innocence. It’s a time of joy.”

So who has the best light displays in town? Please send an email here with only one or two .jpgs attached, and let us know the address — but please remember to also include your full name and a line telling us we have permission to use your photo on Patch. If you want your name used, let us know how your photo credit should read. The photo must be one that you took yourself, and it may appear in our holiday roundup in your town (here's one we did in another state last year)!

Thank you for spreading holiday cheer on your local Patch!