Bronx Christmas House
1605 Pelham Parkway North | also 2200 Westervelt Avenue | Pelham Gardens | built 1950
Open on the map3 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1973
Nelly Garabedian starts a small Christmas light display at the family's corner house
The Garabedian holiday display began in 1973 as a modest set of lights put up by the family matriarch, Nelly Garabedian. According to CNN, she was moved to decorate after witnessing what the family describes as a miracle, whose details they still keep to themselves. Each later year added another layer, and the family eventually learned to make its own fiberglass mannequins, a skill taught to them by a neighborhood priest whose relatives were in the mannequin trade.
Source: edition.cnn.com
- 1994
The Garabedian house makes a brief appearance in Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas video
Mariah Carey's 1994 music video for "All I Want for Christmas" includes a quick glimpse of the Garabedian house on Pelham Parkway North, CNN reported. Carey's songs are also on the playlist that loudspeakers play to visitors outside the fence, alongside Elvis Presley, Edith Piaf, Engelbert Humperdinck and Celine Dion.
Source: edition.cnn.com
- 2018
Gary Garabedian keeps the display going in its 45th year, the house trimmed in pink for his late sister
By December 2018 the display was in its 45th straight year, with roughly 150 pieces, and its main keeper was Gary Garabedian, 54, who had worked on it since he was nine, along with his sister Linda. The family sews every gown on the mannequins itself. In recent years Gary and Linda had painted the exterior in carnation pink trim to honor their late sister Elise, who dreamed of it looking like a life-size Barbie dollhouse. Coins and bills tossed over the fence go to church charities.
Source: edition.cnn.com
Nearby
- St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus Church1902 Mayflower Avenue | 2 entries
- Calvary Hospital1740 Eastchester Road | 4 entries
- The Mall at Bay Plaza200 Baychester Avenue | 2 entries
- Pelham Parkway station2218 Esplanade | 4 entries
- Church of St. Francis Xavier1065 Van Nest Avenue | 4 entries
- Church of St. Clare of Assisi1025 Rhinelander Avenue | 2 entries