Celebrate the festive charm with our Mousehole Christmas Lights paintings by Jeanette Ellison Gillchrest, capturing the magic of Mousehole at Christmas.
 
Total size including the frame 42cm/38cm
 
The Christmas lights were started in 1963 by Mousehole-based artist, Joan Gillchrest.  A string of coloured bulbs were put along both quays to make the village a bit brighter at Christmas time. 
From those early days our displays grew very quickly having caught the imagination of a couple of village carpenters who made up and donated items to the displays.  Some of their designs, like the sea serpent, are still featured at Christmas although they are not the original pieces.  The sea serpent has been remade several times as the weather in December and January can badly affect the displays. The original serpent was made for the 1973 display, but as this was the year of the power cuts, although the lights were all put up, they were only lit for a short period at the end of the Christmas.
Following  a major storm on 15th Dec 1989 (the night before switch on) a lot of the items in the harbour were damaged. Some of the 'Bulks' that close of the harbour were smashed out  by the sea and items on the Quays were washed into the harbour. By switch on time on the 16th Dec the team had reconstructed most of the items, but as the storm continued the items were not put back up. Switch on that year was held at the bottom of Fore street as the waves crashed over the quays. By the end of that week everything was back up and running including the newest display, the Whale, which fortunately was scheduled to be put into the harbour on switch on day, so missed the storm.