Beaches involve water. The water has boats. Christmas has parades. So, Christmas at the beach involves parades of boats on the water - a flotilla. First up this Christmas was the flotilla at Wrightsville Beach. I made my way down there with an estimated 49,999 other people and found a place on a private dock (the red dot in the image) with a perfect view of the boats approaching and turning for the onlookers at the Causeway Drive bridge.

People lining the bridge above the place where I sat

People were encouraged to vote for their favourite boat (thus the numbers on the boats). There were about 2 dozen boats, large and small, elaborate and simple, with music (not always Christmas-y), flashing lights, airhorns, and cheering from the crowd, I did my best to photograph each boat 3 times and pick the best shots, and narrowed them down to the ones you see below.

2nd place winner, a manta ray										1st place winner

After the flotilla there was a half-hour fireworks display, which I caught as I made my way back to the car. It was a pretty chilly night and I had spent the better part of 2 hours walking to the place I sat, and sitting at water-level waiting and then photographing so I was chilled right through. Because TFS goes giddy at fireworks, I'm going to show a lot of my photographic handiwork. :)