Viral Holiday House in NYC Attracts Massive Crowds Year-Round: ‘Unbelievable,’ Visitors Say

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For Roy Jensen, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, all year ‘round.

That’s because the Brooklyn man extravagantly decorates his abode in Bay Ridge for the holidays –from Christmas to Valentine’s Day to the Fourth of July — turning his abode into a social-media sensation that has drawn thousands of fans at a time.

“They drive sometimes for three hours to come here or take the train from New Jersey,” Jensen told The Post of admirers. “It really just blows me away.”

Jensen, 59, said he began decorating his home on 79th Street for Christmas when he purchased it in 1990.

He said he did it to pay homage to the lights he grew up admiring as a child in the neighborhood.

“When my parents took me around, I really loved the lights,” the retired construction worker said. “That was the thing to do back then, because there was nothing really else to do: There was no internet, no phones — so that’s what you did.”

The annual tradition sparked a flurry of creativity for the Brooklynite, he said, and reawakened his interest in landscaping and construction with a nostalgic flair.

“I do everything myself, it’s not like I hire people,” he said.

Everything is bought by me, everything is designed by me,” Jensen said, pointing to his latest display “centerpieces,” two vintage Betty Boop statues for Valentine’s Day.

For Jensen’s next display, he has already ordered a custom leprechaun from a seller in Florida — which will come just in time for the changing of the guard Feb. 15.

“Most people hire people up in Dyker [Heights],” Jensen said of the other neighborhood, which is about a 15-minute walk away and renowned for its Christmas displays.

“They put the signs out front [saying it’s] decorated by this one,” he added. “They just throw up lights most times.”

Jensen’s displays have become more grand over the years, with social media ushering in the desire for more over-the-top elements starting around 2016, said Jensen’s daughter Christina.

“When I was a teenager, it was different,” said Christina, who helps manage her father’s social media accounts for the house. “But it’s his hobby, I have to be supportive.”

The Bay Ridge community basked quietly for years in Jensen’s quirky year-round light show, with only about handful of passers-by per night – until an admirer began posting on social media about the famed house in October, Christina said.

“Since then, boom, we had thousands – we had like 15,000 people on Halloween,” the homeowner said, adding that he had to unofficially shut the street down to traffic Oct. 31.

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Despite the crowds, neighbors have been largely supportive of Jensen’s endeavor, he said, noting that neither the city nor the NYPD has given him any issues over throngs flocking to his displays.

There were three 311 reports filed regarding the house in December to gripe about illegal parking, noise and unkempt street conditions.

The feedback has been “99.9%” positive, Jensen said – with his most vocal fans in their 20s and older.

“What drives me is feedback, because while I’m out there, as soon as I come out of the house, you always have people encouraging me,” he said. “I have kids coming here from when they’re born, from their mothers carrying them in their bellies, and they come here now they’re older.”

Even during the pandemic, Jensen was asked by locals to keep his lights on, he recalled.

The Bay Ridge local estimates it costs him around $150,000 annually for the display, including electricity, and he doesn’t make a profit off the home – even as it has been added to walking guides and bus tours.

While there is a QR code posted outside the home directing visitors to donate to the house’s Venmo account, Jensen contends donations are slim compared to the cost of running the operation, and he doesn’t do it to turn a profit.

“People constantly say, ‘Your display makes my day.’ It makes them happy, it makes them feel good, and it’s not just kids,” he said.

“It just makes me feel good,” he said.

Jensen’s block on 79th Street isn’t the only section of Bay Ridge to have been shaken up by social media, either.

The American restaurant Skinflints on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, which has been decorating its interior for holidays “year-round” for decades, reports social media sleuths are keeping business booming for the traditional gastropub.

“Social media blew us up,” said owner Gerard Bell. “[Visitors] go see Dyker [Heights Christmas lights] – we get calls from Switzerland, England, Australia, you name it.

It’s always crowded now,” Bell added. “It’s usually an hour, two-hour wait.”

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