Vandals have tried to destroy a Jersey Shore town’s holiday spirit by damaging the town’s Christmas lights.

Sea Girt was getting ready to celebrate their annual tree lighting, but as crews were about to test the lights they discovered that someone had cut them all off the display.

“This is unique for us. We’ve never had this in the recent past that we know of,” says Sea Girt Police Capt. Justin Macko.

Macko says that the vandalism happened sometime between Thanksgiving and Tuesday morning.

“We are looking into what cameras are in the area. There are some businesses over there, so we’re going to follow up with that in our investigation,” he says.

The vandals targeted six areas of the town’s Christmas display. Town crews were able to replace the lights and the tree lighting ceremony will go on as scheduled this Friday.

“Hopefully we can find out who did this and hope everyone has a joyous holiday season and that nobody else has to go through this,” Macko says.

The ceremony will be held Friday at 7 p.m.