Nubble (Cape Neddick) lighthouse lit up for the holiday season.
Lighting of Cape Neddick Light, or Nubble Lighthouse, and Lobster Trap Christmas Trees Illuminate the Region During the Holiday Season
During the holiday season in New England, lighthouses are draped with wreaths all along the coast, while some have decorated lights to illuminate the towers. Nubble Lighthouse, also called Cape Neddick Light, is one of the most decorated beacons on the coast of Maine. The tower and the adjoining keeper’s building are decorated with unique lights during a special festival, put on during the weekend after Thanksgiving, named the “Lighting of the Nubble.” At dusk, the lighthouse illuminates each evening until the holiday season ends. It is a great tourist attraction and a unique attraction for the locals. Check out this great annual tradition if you’re in the area, and join the locals for fun and festivities! Santa usually shows up as well.
What? You can’t make it for this holiday celebration? Don’t like the cold? No problem, there is also a “Lighting of the Nubble” celebration in July, six months later each year!
Brightly lit holiday tree made of lobster traps and fishing gear displays in front of lighted Nubble lighthouse for the Christmas season.
Let’s get back to the current holiday season. There’s another more recent tradition sprouting along the New England seacoast where coastal communities are engaged in friendly competition in building holiday Christmas trees made of old-fashioned wooden lobster traps and fishing gear or wireframe lobster traps and gear. Some communities boast of having the tallest, some the most decorative, while most are just happy to create a local joyous tourist site, like the one near Nubble Lighthouse, in honor of those who make a living by the sea. Decorated traps are erected into a large, familiar conical shape, and most are lit at night for visitors to enjoy.
You’ll also find, at Sohier Park, where you would enjoy excellent close-up views of Nubble Light, a lobster trap Christmas tree made of old wooden lobster traps and fishing gear that also lights up in the evening to join the beacon’s illumination. It is located in the parking lot of Fox’s Lobster House restaurant. For those that want to look around, you’ll also find lobster trap holiday trees in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the tradition was born nearly 20 years ago, and in Kennebunk, Maine, by the fire station, for starters.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday season, and drive around to enjoy the lights! Here are some Nubble Lighthouse photos.
Enjoy!
Allan Wood
The Rise and Demise of the Largest Sailing Ships
The Rise and Demise of the Largest Sailing Ships: Stories of the Six and Seven-Masted Coal Schooners of New England. In the early 1900s, New England shipbuilders constructed the world’s largest sailing ships amid social and political reforms. These giants were the ten original six-masted coal schooners and one colossal seven-masted vessel, built to carry massive quantities of coal and building supplies and measured longer than a football field! This book, balanced with plenty of color and vintage images, showcases the historical accounts that followed these mighty ships. Stories involve competitions, accidents, battling destructive storms, acts of heroism, and their final voyages.
Available also from bookstores in paperback, hardcover, and as an eBook for all devices.
Book – Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions in Southern New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
My 300-page book, Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions of Southern New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, provides memorable human interest stories from each of the 92 lighthouses, including the story about the Native Americans rescuing survivors of the City of Columbus mentioned above. You can explore plenty of indoor and outdoor coastal attractions, including whale-watching excursions, lighthouse tours, windjammer sailing tours, parks, museums, and even lighthouses where you can stay overnight. You’ll also find plenty of stories of hauntings around lighthouses.
Book – Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions in Northern New England: New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont
My 300-page book, Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions of Northern New England: New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont provides memorable human interest stories from each of the 76 lighthouses, along with plenty of indoor and outdoor coastal attractions you can explore and tours. Attractions and tours include whale watching, lighthouse tours, unique parks, museums, and lighthouses you can stay overnight. There are also stories of haunted lighthouses in these regions.
Book- New England Lighthouses: Famous Shipwrecks, Rescues & Other Tales
Over 50 stories in my book New England Lighthouses: Famous Shipwrecks, Rescues & Other Tales. This image-rich book also contains vintage images provided by the Coast Guard and various organizations and paintings by six famous artists of the Coast Guard.
You’ll find this book and the lighthouse tourism books from the publisher Schiffer Books or in many fine bookstores like Barnes and Noble.
Copyright © Allan Wood Photography; do not reproduce without permission. All rights reserved.
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