Historic downtown Lewes, Delaware, is fun to explore off-season — it’s easier to get a table at a restaurant, and its museums are uncrowded. Photo by Dana Dagle Photography

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A trip to the beach in winter can combine both peace and play.

For the peace, sit and watch the waves roll in, gulls glide by and clouds float over the sea. In the off-season, the sun-screened partying crowd is likely gone, and youngsters are in school.

But there are also playful events that can spark the holiday spirits. Lewes, Delaware, puts on an outdoor light show between December 3 and 31, when more than 200 homes and businesses display festive holiday lights. Entrants compete for awards with names like Jingle Bell Lane, Clark Griswold and It’s a Wonderful Life.

At Rehoboth Beach, seven miles down the road, Santa sets up shop on the boardwalk, and 10,000 twinkling lights illuminate the scene.

Of course, some retirees like the Delaware shore enough to stay all year. In May 2021, Parade magazine reported that Lewes and Rehoboth were tied with Montana as the number-one retirement destination in 2020.

Uncrowded Lewes

Located at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, where Cape Henlopen curves out like a finger, Lewes (pronounced LOO-iss) offers an interesting mix of history, nature and respite.

Its two beaches offer broad, sandy expanses for meditative strolls. At the oceanside Cape Henlopen State Park, Atlantic waves come crashing onto the shore. For gentler waves and beautiful sunsets, visit Lewes Beach on the Delaware Bay, located within walking distance of downtown Lewes.

In mid-town, the eye-catching Zwaanendael Museum always commands attention, its architecture reminiscent of a cathedral or fairytale castle. Built in 1931 with a stepped façade, gable of carved stonework and red-and-white shutters, the building was modeled after the town hall of Hoorn in the Netherlands.

Inside, visitors learn that 28 men from the Dutch West India Company settled Lewes in 1631 to create a whaling port, nourish the fur trade and grow tobacco.

From 1664 to the colonies’ independence, the Brits took over. Nevertheless, Lewes claims the moniker “First Town in the First State.”

Another exhibit documents the 1986 discovery of a British warship that sank in a storm. The state retrieved 20,000 items from the ship, some now displayed at the museum. Visitors also can glimpse English and German stoneware, a Dutch tobacco pipe and blue-and-white Dutch Delftware.

Walking tours through history

The Lewes Historical Society’s complex offers multiple venues that offer a walk through the town’s history.

Check out the Ryves Holt House, which was built in 1665 and is the oldest building in the state that remains on its original foundation. It mushroomed from one room to nine and for served as a tavern for 20 years. The nearby Plank House, c. 1690, is an example of Swedish building techniques of that time.

The imposing menhaden net reel, used to dry out huge wet nets, is a reminder that fishing for menhaden (small fish used mostly for fertilizer and feed) was the town’s main industry for more than 75 years, until 1966.

In the canal downtown, tour the Lightship Overfalls, a decommissioned floating lighthouse that’s now a museum and National Historic Landmark.

From 1823 to 1972, the Overfalls warned vessels about hazards like dangerous shoals. Its foghorn could be heard for five miles, and was so loud it caused some crewmembers to go deaf, according to an exhibit aboard the retired ship.

Lewes was not always peaceful. In 1813, a British naval fleet bombarded the town, and the battle left a cannonball lodged in the foundation of one building.

Today, the so-called Cannonball House is home to Lewes Historical Society’s Maritime Museum. An exhibit there explores the 22-hour battle, the attacking Brits and how locals fought back.

Lewes’ Maritime History Trail leads visitors to the Life-Saving Station, established in 1884 to rescue mariners and ship cargo. The station was a precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard.

After absorbing history lessons, visitors can head to Cape Henlopen State Park and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, to take in the region’s rich natural history in an ever-changing landscape. The state park has six miles of coastline, barrier dunes, beaches, maritime forests and the Seaside Nature Center.

Prime Hook Refuge is a winter viewing site for waterbirds like snow geese, pintail ducks and marsh hawks. In January, visitors may see bald eagles carrying sticks to spruce up last year’s nest — a sign of spring in the dead of winter.

Rehoboth’s winter persona

President Joe Biden put Rehoboth Beach on the map with his $2.7 million house purchase in 2017, but he’d been visiting the area for years.

Known as “the nation’s summer capital” for millennials who romp there, Rehoboth slows down during the winter, to the relief of some locals.

However, Rehoboth’s broad, mile-long boardwalk, dubbed by National Geographic magazine as a “top U.S. boardwalk,” is popular year-round. Most of the top-tier restaurants and shops near the boardwalk remain open all year, and many oceanfront hotels offer off-season rates.

Throughout December, Santa will have his own house on the boardwalk, welcoming youngsters to make their entreaties.

Several blocks from the boardwalk, the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society & Museum offers a return to the beaches of the past with its vintage postcard collection, dioramas and old-style bathing suits.

A few miles inland, the Schellville Enchanted Winter Celebration will unfold on six acres near the Tanger Outlets.

The free annual event will feature a roller-skating rink under a tunnel of lights, a Christmas village of 18 houses, a Christmas tree maze with an Enchanted Elf Village, and 16 snow machines to supply “ammunition” for snowball fights. Open Thursday-Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. through Dec. 31. Bring your own skates or rent some for $5.

Five miles away in Milton, Delaware, the Winter WonderFEST stages a drive-through light show so bright you may need sunglasses. Cars are charged $20 or $25, depending on day of the week. Open 5 to 10 p.m. nightly through Jan. 2.

On a winter trip to Delaware’s beaches, you won’t likely be sunbathing, surfing or boogie boarding, but you can soak up the serenity of the sea and get into a festive mood.

Lewes Lights, leweslights.org/home, provides a self-guided driving tour of holiday twinkles. See lewes.com or leweschamber.com for the Maritime History self-guided driving tour. Or, for a virtual holiday tour of nine venues, visit Lewes Historical Society, historiclewes.org.

Rehoboth Beach activities are listed at beach-fun.com and downtownrb.com.