Over the past couple of weeks, the towns in this area have been holding little Christmas celebrations - tree lightings, bonfires, Santa arrivals, craft fairs and so on. It has been all quite enjoyable, much to my pleasant surprise.

It's been kind of like that movie Funny Farm with Chevy Chase, where he buys a house in Vermont, where he comes to hate the townspeople (the feeling is mutual) and in an attempt to sell the house to some other yuppies, he pays all the townspeople to stage a Norman Rockwell Christmas. Except that in this case, everyone seems to be actually doing this for their own pleasure (or at least no one has clued me in to where I should collect my cut). I feel like I am on the set of someone staging a typical traditional New England Christmas, but it turns out it is for real.

Anyway, if you are near the coast of Maine at Christmastime, you can not avoid the lobster tie-ins. As you might be able to tell from the photos above — a lobster-trap christmas tree and a wreath decorated with a lobster buoy - a nautical theme prevails.

Here is a much better picture of the lobster trap christmas tree. And lest you think I exaggerate, observe Santa arrive by lobster boat. Complete with the Lobster Elves. I am not making this up.

// mikepop