Veronica Flesher, Patch Staff

For many of us, 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 you compile a list of lights around Ocean City that deserve a visit.

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 Ocean City? Email veronica.flesher@patch.com and let us know the address. Also please send a photo (that you took yourself) to appear in our holiday roundup!

Source: www.patch.com