Where Middletown Residents Can See The Best Holiday Lights

MIDDLETOWN, CT — For many of us, visiting in organized drive-throughs and 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 compile a list of light displays within an easy drive from all points Middletown that deserve a visit.

Here is a sampling:

• Bright Nights at Forest Park, Springfield
• Henry Park, Vernon
• Glow Hartford, Hartford
• Connecticut Trolley Museum Winterfest and the Tunnel of Lights
• Magic of Lights, East Hartford
• Main Street, Middletown

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 Middletown? Email chris.dehnel@patch.com and let us know the address. Also, please send a photo (horizontal, that you took yourself) to appear in our holiday roundup.