Travellers thinking of booking a city break in New York in the lead up to Christmas will get the chance to sample the festive atmosphere in Brooklyn, thanks to the “Christmas lights and cannoli” tour being offered.

The bus tour, created by local operator A Slice of Brooklyn, has been running for five years now, and has proved popular with festive visitors seeking an alternative to the festivities in Manhattan. The tour takes in the decorations and local culinary offerings, including the Sicilian dessert cannoli – best enjoyed with a cup of top quality cappuccino from one of the borough’s Italian bakeries and pastry stores. The tour lasts for three and a half hours and takes in the Dyker Heights area, now attracting over 100,000 visitors each year, thanks to its impressive Christmas lights and huge wooden soldiers, nativity scenes, animatronic figures and other festive displays.

Brooklyn local Tony Nuia launched the tour back in 2006 with the intention of giving tourists a way of seeing Brooklyn from a native’s point of view. He wanted to make it easy for tourists to jump on a bus from Manhattan and take in Brooklyn’s Christmas attractions.

“When I started doing the Christmas tour five years ago, nobody was bothering to go pick people up in Manhattan and bring them to Brooklyn,” said Mr Nuia. “So I took it upon myself to be its official ambassador for the holidays,” he added.

The tour company also offers visitors to New York a different tour which offers a local perspective of Brooklyn’s many pizza restaurants. With the many cheap flights to New York on offer from the UK in early December, travellers should book soon to explore the festive and cluinary delights of Brooklyn.