Two Nativity Scenes Bookend Woodbridge's Main Street

The intersection of Rahway Avenue and Main Street where the old War Memorial stands is a dizzying rush of cars moving in all directions. Motorists who want to keep their vehicle in one piece have to keep their eyes open to avoid collisions.

That might be why so many people drive past a wooden nativity scene, set up every year outside the , and never even notice it.

It's shame, though, since the wooden nativity was fashioned by Public Works employees years ago, and it has been traditionally displayed outside the current town hall and the old town hall that stood on the same site.

No one knows the exact genesis of the nativity scene. "It's been around for many, many years," said Woodbridge spokesman John Hagerty. "No one remembers how long it's been there."

Every year, as members of the town's Public Works Department festoon Woodbridge's downtown with Christmas decorations, they make sure to put up the old fashioned nativity.

At the other end of Main St. where it is bisected by Amboy Avenue, has erected its own nativity scene, which interestingly resembles the one in front of Town Hall.

The figures in both nativity displays are crafted of wood and painted in the likenesses of the Holy Family, the Three Kings, and other Biblical characters described in the Christmas story.

The man who created the St. James nativity had had it at his house and stores it there to this day, a member of the church said. That also includes the sign, "Keep Christ in Christmas."

"He wanted it to have a wider audience," she said.