With their display seen across Sequim Bay each December for decades, one couple says their tradition of decking their boat and dock in lights has come to an end.

Retired educators Bob and Kelly Macaulay opted to retire their 20-plus year tradition this year along East Sequim Bay Road after selling their sailboat.

“I knew I’d eventually have to stop,” Bob Macaulay said.

The couple moved to Sequim from Alaska and started putting up red lights on their boat’s 50-foot mast and for 130-plus feet along their dock. They also decorate their home and beach hut.

But this year due to health reasons, the couple sold their boat.

“I didn’t feel comfortable stringing lights out to the bay and stopping,” Bob said.

“I could do the dock but then people will ask, ‘where’s the tree?’”

The Macaulays have had this boat since 1991 before selling it in the fall.

“It hurts but it’s reality,” Bob said. “We had to sell the boat because of balance and age and strength.”

Their lights would typically be on Dec. 1-31.

While the lights were a tradition for so long, Bob Macaulay said he wasn’t sure how much they meant to many others until a hike where he met another couple walking. The couple told him they go out at night to look out on the bay and through their conversation they told him they looked forward to December 1st when his Christmas lights get switched on.

“Maybe a lot of people looked at these lights and didn’t know who did them,” Bob said.

One year, he tried to change the lights to green, and jumped in his car, drove to the other side of Sequim Bay and discovered green didn’t show up well.

“I took down the green and went back to red,” Bob said.

Christmas will be different this year for the Macaulays, Bob said, due to health reasons, but in reflection about the holiday he feels it emphasizes the importance of family.

It was a blessing to see his son Whitney, a Sequim High graduate, at Thanksgiving, he said, and he hopes those who remember their boat and dock lights “appreciate it as much as we have.”