Below is Wonderland’s guide to dazzling holiday decorations around greater Boston, from Attleboro to Somerville (listed by community, in alphabetical order). This is based on several years exploring region during the Christmas season. Below are sites I’ve confirmed for 2021. I’ll be updating this list, so if you know of great places I’ve missed, please send me a photo and the address!
If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content ©Greg Cook 2020 or the respective creators.)
Andover: 2 Tobey Lane
Dunne Light Show offers lights synched to Christmas songs on 87.9 FM.
Attleboro: 947 Park St.
The National Shrine of Our Lady Of La Salette, 947 Park St., Attleboro, fills its grounds with its annual “Christmas Festival of Lights.”
Boston Parks
Find holiday lights at Boston Common, Public Garden, Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Christopher Columbus Park Trellis, and Copley Square.
Boston: Community Boating, along the Esplanade near the Longfellow Bridge at 21 David G. Mugar Way
Danvers: Arthur Street
Fitchburg: 41 Leroy St.
Gloucester: 197 Main St.
Gloucester: Temple Ahavat Achim, 86 Middle St.
Malden: 50 Bainbridge St.
Malden: 20 Dale St.
Malden: 1 Rockingham Ave.
Melrose: 223 Washington St., just south of Gould Street
Middleton: 5 2nd Ave.
Stickney Christmas Light Extravaganza.
North Reading: 7 Pomeroy Road
Providence: Roger Williams Park Zoo
Holiday Lights Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo.
Readville: 42 Meadowview Road
Canale Family Christmas Light Display founded by Kenneth C. Canale Sr., who died in 2010, on Norton Street and now carried on by his son Kenneth C. Canale Sr. on Meadowview Road.
Saugus: Oakdale Avenue, just east of Lynn Fells Parkway
Saugus: 5 Laurine Road, just east of Lynn Fells Parkway
Saugus: 7 Lynn Fells Parkway
Saugus: 16 and 22 Lynn Fells Parkway
The Amsden and the Guarino families, who share a driveway, have long been behind this show-stopping display.
Saugus: 401 Lynn Fells Parkway
Saugus: 403 Lynn Fells Parkway
Michael Conlon wishes visitors “Peace on Earth” at his Saugus home distinguished by its blue and white lights.
Somerville: 7-9 Ames St., at the corner of Robinson Street
Somerville: 31 and 32 Otis Street, just west of Cross Street
“I’ve been doing it almost 30 years,” John Ragno told me in 2013. He decorates three houses he owns here, two side by side, and one across the street. “I started off with a manger outside, a small manger on the porch. And it grew.”
Somerville Illuminations Tour
Illuminations Tour Deconstructed from the Somerville Arts Council offers a great directory and Google map of decorated homes and art installations.
Stoneham: 83 Franklin St., at Pearl Street
Brian Gudzevich’s computer animated display of some 30,000 lights on 83 Franklin St., at Pearl Street, that he calls “The Lights at Wolf Hill.”
Stoneham: Stone Zoo, 149 Pond St.
The Stone Zoo’s wooded paths are lit up for its annual “ZooLights” nightly through Jan. 9. Admission charges.
Topsfield: 198 Ipswich Road
Topsfield: Orchard Lane
“This will be the biggest display you have ever seen,” Henry Swenson told WCVB5. He estimates his display has 20,000 lights. “Brace yourself!”
Unconfirmed for 2021
Many of these places have had wonderful holiday decorations in past years:
• Belmont: 441 and 429 Pleasant St.
• Beverly: 48 Railroad Ave. at Hardy Street
• Braintree: 120 Messina Woods Drive. In past years, several neighboring houses have featured lights synchronized to music.
• Boston: Adams Street, just north of Victory Road, Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.
• Boston: Macy’s windows, 450 Washington St. Downtown Crossing
• Boston: 62 Tuttle St.
• Chelsea: Corner of Marginal and Pearl streets, atop salt piles at Eastern Minerals along the Chelsea River.
• Dedham: 262 Needham St.: The nativity scene outside St. Susanna’s Parish Church often challenges U.S. government policy.
• Framingham: Perry H Henderson Drive
• Ipswich: Cedar Brook Farm, Essex Road/Route 1
• Lincoln: Trapelo Road near library.
• Medford: 6 Everett St.
• Medford: 56 and 60 Haines St.
• Medford: 85 George P. Hassett Dr., Medford City Hall
• Peabody: 10 Summit St., visible from Route 128
• Stoneham: 1167 Franklin St.
• Waltham: 30 Albemarle Road. Much of this elaborate display has been hand-made by the Schueler family over three decades.
• Waltham: 1369 Trapelo Rd.
• Wilmington, 12R Concord St.
• Woburn: 219 Cambridge Rd.
If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content ©Greg Cook 2020 or the respective creators.)