At the Shore, Christmas trees on the beach have become a tradition. Here’s a guide.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Everything in the offseason at the Shore can feel a bit out of place. Those who remain, or who keep coming down, long after everyone’s left, can turn to familiar objects to let the world know, or reassure themselves: The lights are on, somebody’s home.

In 2019, Sue McElwee decided to place a Christmas tree on the beach at North Street in Ocean City, a place she’d soon move to with her husband and two children. At the time, it was a novel idea.

During the pandemic, though, it took on a deeper meaning and importance for people, who were invited to decorate shells with markers to place near the tree. Thousands and thousands did.

McElwee, known as Mother Gypsea on Instagram, was the original in what now is an expanding winter tradition in Ocean City and other beach towns.

From honoring pets to remembering whales, from the military to international peace, Christmas trees on the beach in Ocean City this year are doing some heavy lifting.

In Ocean City alone there are at least nine Christmas trees that people have secured into the sand, each with their own theme, or, in one case, their own agenda (anti-wind turbines).

They have solar-powered lights, are anchored deep in the sand, have watering systems, and require a lot of daily care from volunteers. Sunrise is a particularly powerful time to see the trees, but a winter’s dusk can coat the sky in pink and offer a setting sun behind them.

McElwee says there have been only a few people who have objected to her tree; one, a woman whose daughter had died and felt the tree interfered with the solace she looked for from the sparse winter beach. Maybe it changed something she relied on to be the same, year after year, even when other things went away.

In any case, here’s a guide to some of this season’s trees in Ocean City, where newly replenished beaches keep them safe from high tide, and where together they form a little trail of offseason territory marking.

McElwee first brought a tree to the beach in 2019, as a prop for Christmas photos with her two boys. The next year, during the pandemic, is “when it really took off,” she said. “It felt like people were looking for a reason to get out, just appreciating the simple things, like a tree on the beach.”

Securing the tree required a 2 ½ foot-deep hole in the sand and some complicated anchoring — think about securing a beach umbrella the size of a Christmas tree.

Like for most of the other trees, she and other volunteers leave a pile of clam shells and markers for people to decorate and leave. One year, they counted more than 7,000 shells. They’re continually moving the shells from around the tree and back against the dune fencing, where they form a little wreath.

The star on top is a starfish, naturally, and neighbor Bill Leighton says he’s written a children’s book based on the tree, in which a GPS in the starfish guides Rudolph to the houses of children down the Shore. Don’t forget! Kids live here!

It wouldn’t be Ocean City without a bit of an anti-wind turbine agenda, and the tree on Ninth Street, placed in memory of the whales that washed up along the Jersey Shore this year, delivers.

“This Tree is dedicated to the Whales Lost due to Wind Development and Sonar Mapping,” the sign says, citing a claim that scientists and marine mammal specialists have mostly rejected.

But the tree itself, decorated in ocean blue tones, with painted wooden whale and starfish ornaments dangling, mostly avoids the politics of the whales and wind.

This one, located right off 11th Street, asks people to dedicate a shell in memory of or in honor of loved ones who have served in the military. It is easily accessible right off the boardwalk.

There’s no dogs allowed on the boardwalk at 21st Street, but on the beach nearby, Roxy and other dogs have their own tree, complete with bone ornaments at the top (saying, I love Roxy and I love Bailey) and a collection of shells dedicated to other best friends: Lucy, Dock, Liam, Coco, Bruno, and even Vito, a TSA bomb-sniffing dog. Thanks for your service!

This tree features a little mailbox for letters to Santa, and is placed in memory of Rose Ann DeChristopher by her family. People are invited to decorate shells in memory of their own loved ones, which many have done.

This modest tree that uses driftwood to look like a tree, has its own devoted following, and features a little creche with a starfish on top. It is perhaps the most appropriate way to have a tree on a beach; a tree truly from the beach, rather than hauling in a tree from a farm. There’s a similar one in Ventnor.

Started by Tony Y. Salloum and his family this year, this tree asks people to decorate a shell for a country, and to wish for peace. There are shells for the United States, Canada, Lebanon, Ukraine, Italy, and Israel, among others. It’s topped by a star decorated with the American flag.

The 59th Street tree is at the southern end of Ocean City, moved a few blocks from its previous spot at 55th due to beach-replenishment activities. This one has lights on the pathway leading to the beach and asks for food donations to be placed in two green bins by the entrance to the beach.