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Christmas at the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey
Who says you can't get your holiday on in December at the beach? FOX 29's Jennifer Lee gets the scoop of the Christmas trees at the beach in Ocean City, NJ.
OCEAN CITY, NJ - In South Jersey, there is some holiday sparkle bringing people of all ages to the beach this season.
About a dozen Christmas trees have popped up along the beaches in Ocean City. Families will stop by, grab a picture and write a message for the holidays on seashells.
This all started five years ago, when Sue McElwee and couple other moms wanted to take Christmas pictures of their children on the beach. They decided to leave the tree up on North Street, and soon realized it started becoming a holiday stop for families near and far.
"My kids love to be a part of it. They think it’s so special. They just love talking about it in school with their classmates, and it’s just nice to show them the simple things mean so much to people," said McElwee.
Over the years, community members started following suit and putting up trees on the beach with themes of their own.
The Christmas tree on 11th Street salutes our service men and women.
The tree on 34th Street has a mailbox collecting letters for Santa.
The tree on 59th Street is collecting donations for the community.
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"I think it’s really nice. Sometimes people think of the shore as more of a summer thing, not year-round, people are down here and obviously really care about building community around here," said Michelle Carlin.
"It’s not just a summer beach town, there’s a true sense of community here and you can see the tree and all of the writings on the shells really kind of depict that," said Sharon Pierce.
The trees require daily maintenance and are all volunteer run. The trees are anchored several feet into the sand to withstand strong winds. At times, volunteers will even take in the seashells to keep them safe from the elements.
"We helped [Wendy] put all the shells back that she took up, so it was quite a nice little experience, something different," said Frank Pierce.
The Christmas trees have truly become a bright spot in the community, as they literally turn on at night with solar-powered Christmas lights.
"I really think that people have the word peace on their mind a lot more, throughout the country and the world, that people are hoping for and wishing for," said Wendy Smith, caretaker of the 59th Street Tree. "It really is something that people look forward to. I don’t know we could ever stop putting them up. I think it’s tradition ."
The Christmas trees go up the weekend before Thanksgiving and stay up through the first week of January.