OGUNQUIT — As Beth D’Angelo and Bobby Morton strolled down Main Street in search of brunch, they paused to admire the decorative greenery outside of On the Main and the festive pillows in the window display stitched with the words “Naughty” and “Nice.”

The couple live in Colorado, but Morton is a lifelong Patriots fan and brought D’Angelo to New England this weekend for the football game. She loved Maine when they visited in warmer weather, so he added two nights in Ogunquit to their itinerary.

In the past, they’ve stayed on the water. This time, he booked a room at the Old Village Inn so they could be in the middle of downtown, where the streetlamps are wrapped in garland and the businesses adorn their doors with wreaths.

“I wanted to see what New England, especially Maine, was like in the winter,” D’Angelo said. “It’s like being in a Hallmark movie right now.”

There areat least eight Hallmark Christmas movies set in the state, so she’s onto something. (We cannot say, however, how many of our visitors are burnt-out marketing executives from the big city.)

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December isn’t the busiest month of the year on the Maine Turnpike and definitely not on the state’s sandy beaches. But tourists are still seeking out small towns in Maine for holiday experiences. Some towns and businesses have leaned heavily into the season, in part to give businesses a boost before the quieter winter months.

“We have so many communities, whether it’s inland or coastal, that can deliver on those kind of postcard vibes,” said Tony Cameron, chief executive officer of the Maine Tourism Association, a private trade group that represents the industry.

The state tourism officereported more than 3 million out-of-state visitors between last December and April. That number was a decrease from 2024, although people still spent more money in the state than the previous year. A sign of loyal visitors and long traditions, nearly half had previously traveled to Maine more than 10 times.

‘A WARM HUG’

Travel writers have been stoking the Yule log.

Travel + Leisurepublished a story last month with a headline to conjure images of sugarplums: “This State Was Just Named the Best Winter Travel Spot in the U.S. — and It Has 19 Ski Resorts, Snowy Forests and 26 Holiday Markets.” (You guessed it! The answer was Maine.)

Alice Pearce, executive director of the Ogunquit Chamber of Commerce, said the magazinehas also ranked Ogunquit as one of the “25 Best Christmas Towns” three years running. This year, the list also included Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The town takes that honorific seriously.

“Everybody here goes the extra mile because we know it’s important to the guests that are coming here and also to the overall town feel,” said Scott Vogel, whose businesses include the Front Porch and the Trident Inn.

This weekend is the town’s annual Christmas by the Sea festival, and over the years, locals said more seasonal businesses have pushed their closing date or added pop-up weekends in order to reap the benefits of that event and Prelude in nearby Kennebunkport. The Ogunquit Chamber of Commerce keeps updating a lengthy list of “Who’s Open” on its website.

“A lot of businesses stay open a lot longer now,” Pearce said. “It makes sense to do so. We want people to think about enjoying the town when it’s not so crazy like July and August.”

The Grasshopper Inn usually closes for the winter, but Manager Mark Schmidt suggested the business open for the first two weekends of December this year because guests had been asking for those dates. Last weekend, first-time guests booked return trips in the summer before they checked out on Sunday. This weekend, most of the seven rooms were full with only limited availability as of earlier this week.

Schmidt loves the feeling of community for both locals and visitors during Christmas by the Sea.

“It’s like a warm hug,” Schmidt said.

It’s also a boon. Mark Reeth, manager of On the Main, said the Saturday of Christmas by the Sea is always the biggest day of the year — with lots of repeat customers.

“Many who have been here before love it so much they put this on their calendar annually,” he said.

SIMPLE TRADITIONS

Nancy White, managing director of the Cliff House in Cape Neddick, said she’s seeing many more multigenerational families booking visits during the holiday season, starting with Thanksgiving.

“From great-grandmothers to newborns,” she said.

She’s seeing guests traveling to Maine by car from states such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and being surprised to find the trip isn’t quite as far as they thought. They come to curl up with a book or relax at the spa.

“That’s what people think of Maine,” White said. “You’re disconnected. It’s simple and holistic and natural.”

Last winter, a quarter of visitors wanted to relax and unwind. One in five came for snow activities. At Sugarloaf, spokesperson Jessica Sechler said many of those guests in December are repeat visitors or own property in the area.

“To create a new tradition or carve out that time, we do find that unless you already have that tradition, it sometimes can be a tougher sell,” she said.

But early snow means a strong start to the season, and the resort has a robust program of events from ice skating to an ice cream social for kids to a 21-plus party on New Year’s Eve.

“We’re trying to hit all the feels,” she said.

Ellie Oczkowski runs the Christmas Vacation Shop in Bar Harbor, where she sells ornaments with designs inspired by Acadia National Park or personalized with special messages. Even for ornaments, the summer and fall are the busiest seasons for her business. She doesn’t open every day in the winter, but she tries to offer occasional hours in December when the weather is good.

She would love to see every lamppost wrapped with lights and every storefront playing Christmas songs at this time of year. But she doesn’t consider her neighbors who close for the season to be Grinches.

“There’s a lot of folks that work all summer long, and at the end of the season, they’re pretty spent,” she said.

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