Some families celebrate Christmas with an Elf on The Shelf. Others take vacations or produce family dance videos in matching jammies. We get visited by Lobsterclaus.

The Murphy family has a long history of making lobster a central element of celebrations. For as long as I can remember we’ve celebrated summer birthdays with a seafood extravaganza. It’s an event my Mom and I look forward to planning every year and is always a highlight of August! When we can’t get a large lobster we’ll gladly default to individual lobsters, but the few years we’ve gone big have been ultra memorable.

Why lobster? First, it’s the symbolic idea of sharing a single birthday celebration between us with something we all adore so much. Also, not an ounce goes to waste, the shell is turned into stock, and no one goes hungry regardless of how big the party grows. Most importantly, it’s DELICIOUS!

After decades of lobster parties, “Lobsterclaus” presented himself one Christmas through my brother, Ted, a few years ago. As the legend goes, “Place a cup of drawn better underneath your Christmas tree and Lobsterclaus will leave a live lobster in your bathtub.” 

Each Christmas since we skip the mall Santa and wait patiently for our home visit from Lobsterclaus. We take family photos, offer butter, and hope for a bountiful new year. (Of course, it’s a joke, but we love it!)