The tiny towns of Beals and Jonesport, Me., have completed their second annual holiday display: a conical tower of 1,364 lobster traps, 60 feet tall, built to withstand the powerful winds that come off the water. It is the towns’ Christmas tree, made of wire traps plucked from the sea by lobstermen who lend them to the cause.

“It’s a beautiful structure,” said Dwight Carver, a 57-year-old lobsterman who has lived all his life on the island of Beals, opposite Jonesport on the mainland.

Shimmering with thousands of lights and topped with an American flag and a cross made of buoys to honor a fallen fisherman, the lobster trap tree is one of many that materialize this time of year in fishing towns along New England’s northern coast, a descendant of smaller trees that have long adorned lobstermen’s yards and ports. Festive monuments of engineering and local pride, they celebrate the season, affirm the local economy and guarantee bragging rights for the towns.

“I think someone did one, and then someone did a bigger one,” said David Cousins, the president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “Which is usually how it goes in the lobster industry. There’s a lot of competition.”