Let there be lights.

Driving to the shore may not seem like the wisest use of your time in the busy run-up to Christmas, but five simple words sent me there:

Christmas trees on the beach

A week or so earlier, a friend had mentioned that you could find lit-up trees on some Ocean City beaches.

How could I resist?

So, on the Sunday before Christmas, a windy, 30-degree day, my husband and I drove to the Jersey shore in search of the beach trees. After checking into our hotel, we headed to Ocean City Coffee to warm up. A helpful worker said she’d heard about a tree behind a restaurant on the north end of the island.

Shortly before sunset we found it, planted in the beach path, a bucket of seashells and Sharpies nearby. We wrote our names on a shell and added it to the hundreds already surrounding the base.

After dinner we went back in the full dark, the moon a waning crescent, the tree nearly invisible. Brilliant, solar-powered dots of red, green, blue and yellow swayed with the branches in the wind. The ocean thrummed.

Next morning, my husband serendipitously woke up at sunrise, and roused me to look: The horizon glowed, a vibrant band of orange resting on the sea.

Fueled by our favorite diner* breakfast, we took a chilly walk along the beach and boardwalk, spotting another bedecked tree near the music pier. 

Our quest complete, we headed home, the list of our to-dos waiting right where we’d left it the day before.

Oh, Tannenbaums. You were so worth the trip.

 —

*That diner is Ready’s Coffee Shop, an Ocean City staple since 1962. 

Tree at sunset