Once upon a time, tugs and local workboats festooned themselves in lights, but Grinches at the Coast Guard put a stop to that, and the harbor is now dark during the December holidays.  What do you think about something with colorful lights for mariners – a harbor equivalent of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, a tradition that began in 1931 when a group of construction workers building Rockefeller Center decided to put up a tree for themselves?

I propose that the port of New York have some point of focus the way New England towns have a lobster pot Christmas tree.  Gloucester and Rockland are currently engaged in a competition about their respective trees, see here and brace yourself for Yankee humor on this blog.  This is about lights, not religion.  It’s about sharing festivity with mariners who enter and depart by water without setting foot off the ship.

What does New York have?  Containers . . .  that’s one idea.  Imagine a dozen empty containers stacked as a pyramid in a prominent location in southeast Bayonne and lit in non-navigation-related lights.

But it doesn’t have to be containers.  Oyster reefs?  Subway cars about to be reefed?  Use the “other” option if there’s an idea you think feasible.  Please share your thought by weighing in on my first-ever Tugster poll (below),    or

put a comment on  tugster.wordpress.com       or   email me.

Assembly of containers is owed to Bowsprite and the magic of her art.  Special thanks.

Unrelated:  Here’s another water-related holiday tradition, Flying Santa of the coast of Maine, memory-jog thanks to MonkeyFist of CBBB, Casco Bay Boaters Blog.