In Downcity, a night out with Nick and carol

PROVIDENCE -- For one night, it was all right to climb on the furniture.

Emma Brown did it, clambering onto a leather ottoman priced at $798. In a few minutes, characters from The Nutcracker ballet would arrive. Would Clara be there? What about Herr Drosselmeyer? Or those ominous mice?

As little Emma waited, her excitement was irrepressible. "I'm dancing!" she cried, then hopped down and bounded across the floor in her 3-year-old's version of plié and pas de bourrée. Her mother, Anna Brown of Providence, and an aunt looked on, sipping wine and mulling a visit to the new shoe store next door.

Design Within Reach, purveyor of modern, minimalist furniture, was one among a litany of Downcity stores that held holiday-themed events last night, and that was the point. Wassailing in the streets -- courtesy of Trinity Repertory Company actors -- highlighted the life that has returned to downtown.

Actors from the theater's production of A Christmas Carol had caroled downtown before, the show's director, Amanda Dehnert, explained over a chorus of "Jingle Bells." But it was usually inside City Hall. This year, the carolers roamed along Dorrance and Westminster streets, their songs penetrating the warmly lit shops as patrons entered and exited.

Earlier, on the steps of City Hall, Mayor David N. Cicilline had kicked off the event -- titled Celebrate Downcity -- by illuminating a 21³2-story tree grown in a Pawtucket man's front yard. Cicilline noted that 35 new stores had opened downtown in the last 18 months.

The aroma of gingerbread was everywhere, but the medal for best-scented went to Biggles Toys, which opened last month in the old Cherry & Webb building. Chocolate chip cookies were baking right in the store.

At Cathers & Coyne (motto, as stenciled on the store window: "Hot shoes for cool people"), patrons ate chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, then fingered $525 suede stiletto boots, and the sales help didn't bat an eye.

Back at Design Within Reach, standing next to an overstuffed leather sofa -- price: $2,998 -- Mark Fleisher explained that the Nutcracker dancers would arrive in a few minutes. They were having trouble finding parking.

Fleisher does marketing for Festival Ballet. He is also the owner of Archie, the Yorkshire terrier who's appeared in The Nutcracker for the past six years.

Behind Fleisher, in the street outside, a Big Nazo puppet with a pointy green nose ambled past the store window, chasing a young pedestrian who appeared to be squealing with delight.

As Fleisher spoke, Archie hopped happily onto the sofa. And Emma Brown, reclining on a futon-style bed in her mint-green dress, was still waiting.