We first met Eddie Vaz and his wife, Yoli, a year ago. The Vaz family, along with neighbor Bobby Turano, decided they wanted to do something to give back to the community that they say gave so much to them.
And so, the Forest Avenue neighbors, for the first time in 2019, built an immense holiday display.
It was hugely successful last year — from a kickoff celebration to scores of people stopping to look.
Originally, Vaz says he wanted to do something simple to give back, especially since he is a successful business owner in Lyndhurst.
“At first, I was thinking of maybe giving presents to a hospital where there were kids who wouldn’t have had a Christmas,” Vaz said last year. “It was just to give back. It was next to my heart.”
But when Eddie, Yoli and Turano put their minds together, they came up with the idea of having their own Winter Wonderland in their neighborhood — and the rest is history.
But then, just a few months after their first successful display, COVID-19 happened.
They’d never be able to put on a display like this in 2020, right? May as well just wait until 2021.
Wrong.
In fact, the display is better and stronger than ever.
The local business owners say they couldn’t be happier with this year’s display.
“As the owners of Eddie and Yolis Tireshop and Bobby as the owner of Turano Brothers Home Improvement, we want to bring smiles and joy to family, friends and community for the holidays,” Eddie says. “We wanted to go bigger and brighter to bring a good feeling to all in these hard times of COVID-19. Merry Christmas to everyone.”
Mission accomplished.
If you want to see the display, take a ride after sundown, past 226 & 228 Forest Ave., Lyndhurst. (There’s also plenty to see in the daylight hours, too.) You won’t be disappointed. — Canessa
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.