Neighbors Like Dartmouth’s Dan Weiner Are Unsung Holiday Heroes

If you saw this photo and thought you were going to read all about the festive house on Cotton Candy Lane in Dartmouth, you are half right.

We very much want to talk about the over-the-top house on Cotton Candy Lane. Even Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest talked about the house looking like Main Street Disney, with Ripa noting, "I wish I was their neighbor" during LIVE with Kelly and Ryan this past Monday.

This past Halloween, the house had every inch of lawn covered in Halloween inflatables; a home so bright, you saw it well before you ever actually arrived at it. There were weekly "extravaganza events" that drove carloads of traffic through the otherwise quiet Lincoln Park quiet neighborhood.

And while it was probably fun to imagine having Kelly Ripa as a real-life neighbor, Jordan Paiva, the proud owner of the house on Cotton Candy Lane, said none of his displays would be quite the same without his real-life next-door neighbor Dan Weiner.

Weiner has graciously let his stretch of yard become part of Paiva's holiday attraction for the last few months. He lent his lawn to a 10-foot long Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters car this past Halloween, and currently to a 13-foot tall Santa as well as Mickey Mouse, Olaf, and gingerbread man inflatables for Christmas.

People would be surprised at just how much of the display isn't on Paiva's property at all. Paiva calls Weiner the VIP of neighbors, noting that he even comes out to make sure people are safe on the nights it gets busy.

Weiner doesn't complain about the cars parking in front of his house or turning around in his driveway. He doesn't mind that his front lawn is currently a booby trap of wires, paracords, and stakes. The funniest part of all is that Weiner doesn't even mind that his neighbor comes out and serenades onlookers with full-on concerts through his P.A. system. And when the wind tears through Cotton Candy Lane, bringing lights and inflatables down with it, Weiner is one of the first to help get them back up.

These past few months have been something special with hundreds of homeowners going above and beyond the call of decorating duty. They have given us all so much to look forward to when so much has already been canceled. But for every amazing home that draws crowds of onlookers night after night, neighbors like Dan Weiner will continue to be the unsung heroes of the block.

We've all said our thanks to the people who have done the decorating, but the Dan Weiners of the world deserves to hear it, too. So thanks a million, Dan, from parents across the SouthCoast.