One of New Jersey's most enduring holiday mysteries is playing itself out again along a busy toll road.
The Secret Santa of the Garden State Parkway is once again surreptitiously hanging ornaments from a large pine tree by the side of the road in the dead of night.
It's the fourth year in a row that the ornaments have shown up on the same tree in the southbound lanes, just south of the Tuckerton exit in Little Egg Harbor Township.
A gold star was hanging from the boughs of the tree Tuesday morning.
The decorating is no easy task.
Whoever is doing it has to go out of their way; the tree is in a remote, sparsely populated area in southern Ocean County with no homes or other buildings nearby.
A year after the decorations first appeared, someone cut the low-lying branches the ornaments had been anchored to, forcing whoever is doing the secret decorating to reach higher and farther.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
And they did.
The lowest branches are now more than 10 feet high.
No one has come forward and acknowledged putting up the ornaments. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which maintains the road, has said in the past it isn't responsible.
Fan, follow and download: Get the latest from NBCPhiladelphia.com anytime, anywhere. Follow NBC10 News Today on Facebook. Sign up for our morning newsletters. And, get breaking news delivered right to your mobile phone -- just text PHIBREAKING to 639710 to sign up. (Message and data rates may apply.)
