A few blocks of Franklin Avenue in Nutley were transformed Sunday into a winter wonderland, with the gentle canter of horse-drawn carriages temporarily replacing the rush of car traffic during the towship's annual holiday lighting celebration.

The festivities -- which included holiday-themed song-and-dance numbers by Nutley High students, this year's debut of the Living Nativity at Vincent United Methodist Church and a petting zoo set up on the front lawn of the John H. Walker School -- culminated with the lighting of the towering holiday tree rooted next to Nutley Town Hall.

After brief remarks by Mayor Alphonse Petracco and invocations read by a minister and a rabbi, Anne Rotondo, director of Special Young Adults of Nutley, threw the switch activating the holiday display.