A map of the Holiday Light Extravaganza participants in Lake Placid is available on the Google Earth app. It was created by Diana Friedlander. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The holiday tradition of driving around the village to see the Christmas lights just got easier. There’s now a map for that. In an app.

Diana Friedlander — aka the “Lake Placid Girl” — has taken phone calls from people around the village and created a Google Earth map of more than 20 properties that have Christmas light displays. The Google Earth app can be downloaded to a smartphone or computer. And a link to the map and more information can be found on her personal Facebook page (https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592223269) and the Lake Placid Girl Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/lakeplacidconcierge/.

People can also get the map by logging on to Google Earth and searching for “Diana Friedlander.”

“Since it’s been kind of a dark, somber year for people, I just wanted to do something that might be fun and that the locals can get into that is safe and everyone feels comfortable and everyone can feel a part of,” Friedlander said Monday, Dec. 7.

Friedlander, who works at the Engel & Volkers real estate agency in Lake Placid, launched the map with links on the Lake Placid Girl Facebook page and her personal Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 4. At first she called it the “COVID Cruise Around” but has settled on the more positive “Holiday Light Extravaganza.”

Holiday lights at the Mirror Lake Inn (News photo — Andy Flynn)

The idea came from a trip to Key West, Florida, where she took a trolley tour to see holiday lights.

“We had so much fun that I thought it would be fun to do here,” she said. “Being born here, being from here and being so hometown proud, I just wanted to showcase stuff.”

The Friedlander name is well known in Lake Placid. Diana’s father, John, was the headmaster at Northwood School for about 30 years, from the late 1960s to 1996. Her mother continues to be an energetic volunteer; many know her from the Garden Club of Lake Placid, which used to sponsor a holiday light contest.

“That kind of fell off, and I just wanted people to not be judged but to do whatever they wanted as far as lights go,” Diana said. “From classic Christmas to in your face, outer space, because I wanted people to do whatever they wanted.”

There’s a method to the map. It starts at the Sunoco gas station at the top of Mill Hill (corner of state routes 73 and 86), where Friedlander suggests people pick up a hot drink for their evening adventure. The light show begins at her house on the corner of Northwood Road and Autumn Way, continues to the Mirror Lake Inn, High Peaks Resort, up Saranac Avenue to Greenwood Street (“many houses”) and leads people around the village — a tour most people wouldn’t think of taking on their own.

The process of making ice on the Olympic Speedskating Oval in front of the Lake Placid Middle-High School begins on Monday, Dec. 7 as state Olympic Regional Development Authority crews use a truck to lay down water, which freezes into layers of ice. This process usually takes several days, and ORDA hopes to have a soft opening this weekend, weather permitting, to kick off the new season of skating at the Oval. As with all venues, COVID-19 precautions will be taken. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

“There are so many side streets that people may not think to go to, and that’s exactly why I thought this would be nice,” Friedlander said. “Lake Placid is always lit up and always gorgeous, but there are those side streets for people who decorate and a lot of people don’t see them.”

Neighborhoods included on the map are Ahmek Way, Algonquin Drive, School Street, McKinley Street, Mill Pond Drive, Trillium Way, Spruce Street, Hurley Avenue, Balsam Street, Summer Street, Newman Road, Old Military Road, Station Street, Church Street and Sentinel Road. The tour officially ends on Main Street, yet there are many more residential and business properties decorated with holiday lights that aren’t on the map.

Friedlander has some advice for anyone trying the follow the map.

“Do a dry run in the day so you know what you’re doing because it is difficult at night to read the directions, even if you’re on your phone just following the map,” she said. “Just get lost. Go. Do it. It’s so much fun. Crank Christmas music, follow the map and then go off the map. Who cares? Have fun with it.”

Holiday lights on Greenwood Street (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Holiday lights on Sentinel Road (News photo — Andy Flynn)