Last November, a volunteer from Waterford named Jesse Perrault stood on a ladder in Scheer Park, tying a hand-painted buoy decorated as a Christmas carousel onto a wooden tree. According to The Day, he also had to keep a knitted octopus from swinging into his face. He and several other volunteers wrapped five trees in garland and solar lights and strung just over 200 buoys on them that day.
Neighbors made every one of those buoys, and the trees only borrow them. The display is back for its fourth season. Opening night is Friday, November 20, from 5:30 to 6 p.m., and the trees stay up from November 21 to mid-January. Once you know how a buoy gets onto those trees and where its money goes afterward, the whole Niantic holiday calendar makes more sense.
Every Buoy Goes Back Home
Buoys by the Bay sits in Scheer Park at the corner of Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, beside the train fence. Niantic Main Street calls it a "little" tree farm, covered in buoys decorated by people from around the region, local organizations and businesses. The trees come down in January, but the buoys don't get packed away for next year. They go back to the people who made them.
This is how one buoy gets through the season:
- It's sold blank on Main Street. This year's event page names three sellers: Mermaid Liquors, Café SoL and Coastal Gifts on Main. Niantic Main Street's 2025 instructions list them at 159, 488 and 266 Main Street.
- The owner decorates it. The 2025 rules welcomed painting, decoupage or any other technique, and ruled out offensive, violent, lewd or political designs. The Day saw hand-painted buoys, buoys covered in seashells and sea glass, and buoys done in glitter paint.
- It comes back to a shop. The East Lyme Public Trust Foundation explains that decorated buoys are returned to a seller, and volunteers then add ropes before the buoys go up.
- It hangs in Scheer Park. Volunteers tie the buoys onto five wooden trees in the week before opening night.
- It goes home in January. The Day reported that owners can pick up their buoys after the display closes.
Step three explains the gap in last year's numbers. Organizers sold almost 300 buoys in 2025, which was every buoy they had. On installation day, volunteers hung just over 200. Decorated buoys were due November 7 that year to make opening night. Buoys that came back later might still go up, but there was no guarantee they would be there on the first evening. So the trees don't depend on how many buoys sell. They depend on how many neighbors finish their decorating in time.
Three Years at the Same Ceiling
Since its first season, the display has stayed about the same size. The 2023 run sold all 300 buoys, and the 2025 run sold almost 300, which was the full supply.
| Season | Buoys | Trees |
|---|---|---|
| 2023, first year | 300 styrofoam buoys sold at $50 each | Five tree-shaped displays planned |
| 2024 | Nearly 300 buoys | Five wooden trees, 6 to 9 feet tall |
| 2025, third year | Almost 300 sold, the full supply; just over 200 hung on install day | Five trees in garland and solar lights |
WFSB covered the first season in 2023 and reported that it was the first time the display had been in town. Buoys that year included pigs, winter scenes, crabs and figures from Crescent Beach. In 2025 the price was still $50 and the five trees were still the frame. What changed was who joined in. Children from the Children's Museum of Southeastern Connecticut painted small fish for the trees, the first addition of its kind, as The Day reported.
The volunteer crew has kept the same practical spirit every year. Kathie Cassidy, a Foundation volunteer, spent the 2025 install looking for empty spots to fill, and told The Day:
"It makes quick work when we're cold."
Where the $50 Goes
The buoys go home, but the money stays. Two groups produce and sponsor Buoys by the Bay: Niantic Main Street and the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation. The Day reported that in 2025 they split the proceeds and used them to put on events through the year and to support local nonprofits.
Both groups shape the parts of Niantic people use every day. Niantic Main Street is all volunteers, and it produces the Holiday Stroll. The Public Trust Foundation came up with the Niantic Bay Overlook and Boardwalk. The boardwalk was finished in 2005, rebuilt after storm damage and rededicated in 2016, and the Foundation still helps maintain the boardwalk and the beach. Its project list also covers beach grass planting, the McCook Park Bandshell and the commemorative plaques along the boardwalk.
You can trace the buoy money to specific places. The town's third-quarter 2025 events magazine reported that buoy sales let the Foundation give $500 each to seven East Lyme nonprofits, announced at its June 2025 annual meeting. A buoy that spends December on a tree in Scheer Park helps pay for things around town the following summer.
Scheer Park Anchors the Rest of the Season
Scheer Park sits at Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and that corner comes up again and again in December plans.
Saturday, November 28: the 23rd Annual Niantic Holiday Stroll, noon to 6 p.m. It lands on Small Business Saturday and fills downtown with more than 25 shop and restaurant specials, roaming characters, carolers from The Music Studio, a Shop Small contest, and visits from the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. Kids can hunt for elves in shop windows on the Mermaid Elf Trail, and the event page sends families over to the buoy trees in Scheer Park. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive at Liberty Green for a tree lighting at 5 p.m.
Saturday, December 12, morning: the Niantic Jingle 5K at McCook Point Beach & Park. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m., and the walk/run starts at 10 a.m. The money raised goes to the Brian Dagle Foundation and its healing center.
Saturday, December 12, 6 p.m.: the Niantic Light Parade. The town's route starts at Columbus Avenue, runs down Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue and finishes on Grand Street. If weather cancels it, the parade moves to Sunday, December 13, at 5 p.m.
Look at where the parade turns. It heads down Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, which is the corner where the buoy trees stand. So the season starts at Scheer Park on November 20, the Stroll points families back there on November 28, and the parade passes the same corner on December 12. That puts the neighbor-made buoys at the center of three of the season's biggest nights.
January, When the Trees Come Down
The display runs to mid-January. After that the buoys go back to their owners, including the painted ones and the seashell ones. The proceeds stay with Niantic Main Street and the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation and go to events through the year and to local nonprofits.
For anyone keeping a calendar, the first date is opening night: Friday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m., at the corner of Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, next to the train fence.
Traditions like Buoys by the Bay are a big part of what makes the Shoreline feel like home. Tammy Tinnerello follows them closely in East Lyme and every town she serves. If you'd like a guide who knows which corner of Main Street matters in December, and why, Work With Tammy.
