Hi everyone, I'm Emily.
And I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.
Christmas edition!
I'm over here struggling. Vince and I got some...
What are they?
Ninja...
It's a ninja blast.
Oh really? Yeah, that's the model.
And made ourselves some frappuccinos before this.
So it's a special occasion.
And that's because it's the holidays.
Christmas gift from mom. Thanks mom.
Shout out to Vince's mom.
So I actually do have a history buoy today.
Even though this is our yearly
once annual
Christmas episode.
Now part two.
But last time I didn't have a
history buoy because we were announcing
the winner
of our giveaway. Which we should have
done this year. But I kind of forgot.
Was it the Tumblr last year? Nice.
Which seems like it was a long
long time ago. Only a year is kind
of crazy. But so anyway
we don't have that so I have a history buoy.
So I have a little picture here.
I'm going to be covering deck
prisms. Which I just learned
about the other day because my twin sister Carly
shout out to Carly. Shout outs everywhere.
She sent me one that was for sale. And was like
have you ever heard of this? And I was like no.
So I'm going to talk
about it. So in the past
you know light sources were all
dangerous to have around
wood because it was fire
and oil and like. You mentioned
that the other day. Yeah. Fire and wood keep them
separate. Yes exactly.
Is that yesterday? And so
when you think about most
ships like
back then were made out of wood
then you'd best find
an alternate light source for under deck.
Yeah most ships more problem. Yeah. So
they made this alternate light source called deck
prisms which became common in wooden ships.
As you can see it's
basically they cut a hole
into the deck of the ship
and place
a glass prism inside
so the deck of the ship is
flush you know it's still
flat. But there are these little holes where
light comes in and then the shape of the prism
expands the light source.
So instead of it just being like a hole where there's like
you know a shaft of light
filtering in it's it's expanded.
That's crazy. I've never seen
this before. Not unlike our
beautiful for now lenses. So
it's relevant.
And obviously this wasn't helpful at night time but
it allowed for ample light when
it was daytime. Yeah. And also
wouldn't you know have
leaks and stuff. That's huge. If you installed it correctly.
And I have another photo. Were they mostly
triangular? Oh no. There's
lots of different shapes. You can see them all
over the place. This one was pretty cool. Pointy.
But there's a ton of them too.
On this example. That's super
cool. So is this
are these all the same example?
Oh yes. On the left it looks quite
scratched. But on the
right the lights coming through really well.
It's pretty clear. I feel like even
if it's not
a clear prism
light still comes through pretty easy.
It doesn't have to be. No I've never
heard of these. They weren't any pirate movies.
No I know. I was like I guess
it adds to the ambiance to have it really dark
below deck in pirate movies. But
yeah my sister sent me this. She's like have you ever
heard of this? I was like no. Shout out to Carly.
Shout out to Carly giving us an excellent
history of Bowie to cover. But yeah
they actually sell a lot of these online. So they're like
artifacts
that you can buy like from Viking ships
and stuff. One of my references
is from a place that has a bunch of Viking
antiques and
artifacts. That's crazy.
And they have a few of these. Ship antiques
are cool huh? Yeah. That's awesome.
So do you know about what years
these were in use? I know that
the artifact that the Viking
website used was from 1899.
So I'm not sure exactly
when. 1899
for that one example. Yeah.
That's all I got.
But yeah that's our history of Bowie. And now
I will go into our Christmas
episode just like last year for those
of us who have been around that long.
I did a Christmas episode last
year that I just
covered a couple of lighthouses
that we had already covered in
our podcast and what they do
for Christmas time. And so I'm doing
that again this year. So I randomly
selected some lighthouses
from our past episodes that do Christmas
related stuff. And I'm going to tell
you about them. Did we also talk
Flying Santa last year? Or was that? That was
the year before that. What? I know.
Oh man. Time is flying.
But I do have a brief mention of
Flying Santa in this one. So
let's get into it.
These are in no particular order. I just
kind of selected some. So first
one I'm going to do is Nubble Light or
Cape Nettic Lighthouse.
This was one of the staples
for Christmas decorating traditions
when it comes to lighthouses. And I remember I pulled
a picture during the episode and was like
I would talk about this
but I'm going to save it for our Christmas
episode. We covered this in
episode 62. This is located
in York, Maine.
We have a few, I think a few Maine
lighthouses here. Or maybe they're pretty spread out.
I don't know yet. So the island
that this is on is not accessible to public
but up to 8,000
people gather in the
park across the water for the first Saturday
after Thanksgiving for the lighting
of the Nubble event.
Which is very exciting. Is Nubble the one
that had the
baby transporting
thing,
rope and
bucket.
Check out the episode.
Episode 62 everybody.
But they switch a flip
and the lighthouse is illuminated by Christmas
lights. I got some pictures.
They switch a flip.
They switch a flip
and
boom, wow, there are Christmas
lights in the sky.
I'm not even tired. I'm just that way.
Oh, gosh.
Nubble.
Very lit. They put
lights around just about every crease of the lighthouse
so it's pretty exciting. Really well done.
All the outbuildings, oil,
boathouse, they got it all.
So this one's obviously like very
popular, highly photographed
type of event.
So Matt Rosenberg
who's the modern day keeper on the
island says, quote, it has become
popular enough that we now close the park
to cars so kids can run around with their
families as they wait for Santa to arrive.
That's nice. The park's trust board
serves hot cocoa and cookies
to everybody. I believe they're free.
They're live reindeer
and the York High School chamber choir
sings carols and then they do
the countdown for the lighthouse
to turn on the lights. Man, what an
event. Always an event, yeah.
The tradition of the Christmas lights
started in the early 80s,
1980s. Mrs. Margaret
Cummings who lived on York
Beach donated Christmas lights to the lighthouse
in honor of her late husband
and the Coast Guard keeper at the time
volunteered to put them up and they were lit
November 1987.
And ever since then
they've just kept up the tradition. They add more
and more lights and now it's
like this big, big thing
that remain on every night until
New Year's. That's really cool.
Yeah. And I just saw
that they also do a July
lighting for summertime visitors
because like
most visitors to Maine
go during the summer when the weather's nice.
Like not when it's, I mean you can
just see in this picture that it's all snowy.
And so they have a July
event which personally
I disagree with. Christmas in July.
I just
Christmas.
It's a thing.
It's at the opposite end of the spectrum.
There's no
beach Santa.
I've seen depictions of a beach Santa.
That's when he's off and then not
it's Christmas.
That's when he's off duty.
So that was Cape Nettick lighthouse.
It's a big one.
Next I'm going to talk about
Edgar Towne lighthouse.
This was episode 47
and it's at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
And Vince and I went there.
Didn't include any pictures from our trip
because this
is a Christmas episode and we went in
August. Yeah it was awesome though.
Or maybe it was September I can't remember.
Is that the one we walked
to that was kind of far?
Yeah from the bus stop.
It was fun. Edgar Towne was really pretty
and they do. Big coffee. Apparently
Edgar Towne is like the place
to be around Christmas time.
So any of our listeners who live
around there confirm
or deny. But it sounds like
this place is popping around Christmas
time. So this year was the 43rd
annual Christmas in Edgar Towne
event. The festival was on
December 12th
through 15th and the whole town is decorated
and the lighthouse is covered in
lights and wreaths. Nice.
It's a really nice. Very pretty.
I like there's different
colors. So like
you know, noble lighthouse is just like all
lit, very red looking
and this one's like we got
drapey lights.
We've got framing lights, wreaths
all kinds of stuff.
The multicolor. Yeah. The red beacon.
I can appreciate that.
Oh yeah the red beacon is nice. A nice touch.
Very Christmas like of them. This year
they had a most
festive fit award.
Which from what I've read
it's
like elves.
The outfit. So
yeah. So you visit Edgar
Towne if you live there or whatever.
Elves quote, unquote
keep watch over Edgar Towne
from December 2nd to 14th
and approach you
if you are dressed festively
and on December 14th
the contenders who were invited by
the elves return for final
judging to decide who has
the most festive fit. Oh my gosh.
I like is that
right? It just sounds crazy like
you just walk around town
in a super festive outfit and hope to
be approached as like a contestant
on this most festive fit.
The elves must be employed
by the city. Yeah they must be like city
employees hanging around. Hired from Santa.
So funny.
So I thought that was cute. I think it's the first year they're doing
it so we'll have to see how it turned out. Because
Vince and I are recording this before
this event happens. But when
it comes out it will be after. So
maybe we'll have to
do a look and see.
Crazy. Stores decorate their windows
and visitors vote for their favorite
one which I think is fun. So basically
it's like competition between the
stores to like have the
most highly decorated window like shop window.
Nice. And local art groups
decorate Christmas trees for visitors to walk through.
They say it's like a Christmas forest and then I'm sure
you vote for your favorite one of that too.
That's awesome. And Saturday
morning is the parade
which I saw one blogger
who
took photos and like went
to this event and
I got to see it from her point of view but
it looks pretty cool. It looks
fun. Isn't this a town where
they don't need cars?
Isn't that what we determined?
Mostly. There were lots of cars driving
around but it would have been better
as a town with no cars. The island is
kind of small. Yeah. Yeah it was the one
where we took the bus for like fifteen minutes
along the water. Yeah it's just big
enough for a car I guess. Yeah it's big
enough but yeah it would have been better.
Out on Martha's Vineyard. Edgar Town
has all kinds of events like light shows,
wreath auctions, holiday
cocktail competitions,
cookie dederi...
cookie de...
Wait.
I'm trying.
I'm just trying to say cookie decorating.
Cookie decorating
and pop ups.
And other stuff. So like
that's a lot of really cool
fun stuff in the town.
Yeah. To have going on. It would be fun to be there.
So now I'm thinking that we should
definitely have that on our list for like some kind of
Christmas trip. We would need a house.
Excuse me? There's not a lot
of... There's not a lot of like hotels
I saw going on there. No they're around.
They just weren't downtown where we were.
Oh. That would be a fun family
event too. Like your side of the family
if we all just went to Edgar Town.
I feel like your mom would love that.
She would. It's just far away.
Yeah. Got a plan on it.
That's what flights are for. That's what money's for.
Yeah. Money for fun.
For your spending. But the
lighthouse kicks off the Christmas
and Edgar Town festival lit on Friday
with free hot chocolate and cookies for all.
Which seems to be a
common theme with our lighthouse
lightings. Free hot chocolate and free cookies.
Like that. Yeah.
So that's Edgar Town. I think that one's probably the most...
I think it's because
the town itself is Christmasy
that I
am interested in seeing it.
Like I would go to see a Christmas lighting
at a lighthouse. But
when there's other stuff to do that's when it's like
oh. Like holiday cocktail
competitions. It sounds amazing.
Do you think most people are taking the
ferry to Martha's Vineyard
for this? I don't know.
Yeah. We kind of looked around. The house is
near where we walked.
Maybe it's not all that way. But they were
quite grand. You know they looked
like maybe they were seasonal homes.
And maybe it's still
maybe it's still locals but it's like
Cape Cod locals and not
or like people from New York or
something come down. It's not people like
us traveling from the middle.
From the middle.
Next one I'm
going to talk about Split Rock Lighthouse
which I couldn't find any pictures
of whether or not they actually do
holiday lights
for Split Rock. And maybe they don't
because it's the one that's on the edge of the cliff. I
found a picture. Oh yeah I remember that one.
A cool one with the snow and stuff.
Cold. Yeah
very cold. I'm thinking that's probably why they don't
do a bunch. Unless there's just no photos
of it but I feel like that's hard to believe.
But this was episode 44
and is in Two Harbors
Minnesota.
So chill little chilly. Every
Saturday in December starting the weekend
after Thanksgiving you can take a tour
of the lighthouse and
they do a guided tour of the Keeper's
Dwelling and then make your own
vintage ornament inside. And then
you can either decide to decorate
the Keeper's house with that ornament or
you can take it home with you. Nice. Pretty
cute. This is it's just north of
Duluth is it right? Yeah.
And also Santa visits the lighthouse
for one weekend in December to take pictures
with the kids for free. Busy
man. Yeah. He's all over.
Yeah so this one's a little more
subdued but I thought it was really unique
that you can go to the lighthouse and make
ornaments.
How nice is that?
Alright I got two lighthouse
left. This will be a pretty quick episode.
I feel like last year I had better luck
with finding
lighthouse events. More like Edgar
Town where
I don't know. Remember like Saint Augustine?
Yep. They had like crazy
tree. Yeah.
Tree scavenger hunt. Yeah. One of them was
inside the tower. Love that one.
So cool. Pretty cool.
Okay.
Next one is oh no.
It's either
Navisync or Navisync lighthouse.
We do this every time.
Navi? Navisync.
I'll just say Navisync.
But that was episode 54
also known as Twin Lights.
And if you look at the south tower
because there's a north and a south tower.
If you look at the south tower the day
before December 1130
you may be surprised to see
that a tree has appeared.
Oh yeah. I remember this.
Another thing that I wasn't going to talk about
until this episode.
Here's a nice crazy photo
that this person's taken.
I forgot to put credits
on all of our photos but
I guess I'll have to do that later.
Shout out to them.
But this tree
as shown in our photos is actually made
of draped Christmas lights.
And in 2008 Highland citizen
Diane Micklewane
noticed that the tree wasn't there.
And she had just moved and she really liked it.
And she found out that the people who did it
before could no longer put up the tree.
And so she offered to take
over doing it every year. And they said yes.
That's nice. I know.
So every year 12 strands of C9
Christmas lights are strung in the lantern room
and lit until late winter.
So they keep it up for a while.
And they have a tree
lighting ceremony on the day before
December. And an event called
Winterfest. Heck yeah.
And you can at Winterfest you can join all
day for tower climbs
crafts and free hot chocolate.
And they have like kids goodie bags
and stuff that you can take home. I know.
It strikes again. It must be pretty cheap.
Like if you get the powdered version and just
like mix it with hot water.
Vince hates that.
There's a couple things where I replace
milk with water and Vince
is like this is wrong. It's supposed
to be milk.
Like mac and cheese.
Yes. Macaroni and cheese
you use milk.
I usually don't have milk. He needs some
milk. We did have milk for our frappuccinos.
So it's not a total abomination.
Yeah thank god it wasn't water.
How crazy that would have been. We just come
from different lifestyles right?
I'm making do with what I got.
I'm some luxurious boy
because I have milk in my life.
You're just pampered is all.
Silver spoon in your mouth.
Milk in the fridge. Milk always in the fridge.
You don't understand.
Anyway wow derailed.
Until 2019
the lights had to be connected
via an extension cord
that they ran all the way down the
banister of the light tower.
And then in 2019
they finally installed an electrical outlet
in the lantern room so that this
becomes a much easier tradition.
It's kind of shocking they didn't have an outlet.
But you think about it. Lighthouses
are not built with electricity.
Yeah but you can I mean I guess
I'm in construction. You can run a conduit
in a 120
you can run a basic socket outlet
pretty easily. And maybe they would have
added an outlet if
like I think South Tower wasn't
used when there was electricity. Remember
they had like a generator
like as a backup. Oh yeah.
And so they just never
connected it to electricity.
That's really cool. Yeah it's interesting.
First lighthouse to have I think
electricity. Good for them volunteering.
Yeah woohoo! That's how we
keep traditions alive. People have got to be
passionate and
take charge. Yeah that dude's
wearing Carhartt. You can see that logo on his arm.
He knows what he's doing.
Those glasses and the Carhartt you know he's the
man. See they've upped
their tree because
originally she said it was eight strands
and it didn't look tree enough.
But now you can see from this picture this was oh
sorry this photo that I have up
was from this year from Diane's
Facebook page putting up the lights
for the year.
Let's go Diane.
It seems that they've got some like branching lights
now. They've got some horizontal
light going on so
I feel like they
it still could be 12 strands
of lights. But it's just like
cause like here you can see the strands turn into
three strands at the bottom.
Yeah that could just be one that's run across
and then like zip tied.
Yes you're right. I didn't see the zip ties.
If they want to reach out
to us talk us through the procedure. Yeah.
Love it. And our
last one is Goat Island
Lighthouse. This was episode 66
the one before our
last episode. Second to
last light in the US to be automated
and this was actually one of
the original drop off locations
for Flying Santa.
So you know Flying Santa
people go listen to our episode. I should probably
listen to it too so I can get
reacquainted with the
tradition. But Santa basically
Santa quote unquote
used to fly around
in a small plane
and drop off
necessities but also nice
little gifts for keepers
that were at lighthouses that were not accessible
around Christmas time. And
now it's been upgraded Santa in a
helicopter. And so here's
a picture of it in front of Goat Island Lighthouse
which is one of the originals in Maine.
And Scott
Dombrowski who is the current
like caretaker for
the light also decorates the lighthouse
with an elaborate display of Christmas lights
every year. And I couldn't find a picture
of that either. So it's kind of a bummer.
Heck yes Scott. Go Scott.
That's awesome.
That's it.
That is all of our Christmas
events at lighthouses for this year.
Maybe next year I'll
target lighthouses to
cover that will have cool Christmas
events going on. At
Christmas time or before? No
at Christmas time. I'm sorry.
Shoot.
No early Christmas is
blasphemy. I already think that
Christmas in November is a mistake.
People who are doing that
it's a shame.
She shakes her head at you.
Christmas time should not be
20 percent of the year.
Should be
less than 10 percent.
People start too
early.
So what's
the optimal date to start Christmas?
December 1st.
I went a little early with Christmas music this year
because I was needing to pick me up.
But I didn't decorate until December 1st.
December 1st.
And when do the Christmas decorations come down?
New Year's.
Day before New Year's.
So that's one twelfth of the year approximately.
Less than 10 percent.
Indeed.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from
the Lighthouse Lowdown.
Thank you to all of our listeners that have hung on
all year long.
Vince and I did not miss a single episode
on time this year.
Incredible. Big win.
Incredible. We are big winners.
Also
to go along with that, Vince and I will
be skipping an episode
for the holidays. So our next
episode is going to be
released on January
20th, 2025
by Vincent Bailey.
Let's go. So keep an eye
out for that, but don't be alarmed when
in a couple more Mondays
we're not going to be posting an episode.
We've got a little month break. We'll still
post something that just says, hey.
Hey. Check in next week.
Next two weeks. Stick around.
Don't go anywhere. Yeah. But
we thank you and we hope that everyone has a
joyful holidays and an excellent
New Year. And we'll see you
in 2025. Next year.
And we'll catch you there
on the lighthouse.
Lora here.