ST. NICK’S PICKS: Bob Kugel shows off his collection of holiday beach badges. Twelve years after starting he has accumulated 65 of the 80 that are available on Long Beach Island. In addition to his holiday badges, he has amassed roughly 800 local beach badges of all kinds dating back more than five decades. (Photos by Ryan Morrill)
The lure of the beach remains strong even when the cold winds blow and the year-end holidays roll around. For those yearning for the return to the warmth of summer’s embrace, holiday beach badges are a cherished reminder of the summer days to come.
“It’s better than a flannel shirt,” Bob Kugel, a Ship Bottom resident who has authored two books on Island beach badges, said of being gifted a holiday badge.
He has collected 65 of the 80 holiday beach badges available on the Island.
“Ship Bottom started (selling holiday beach badges) in 2011. Probably by the second or third year, I started collecting them actually,” Kugel said. “Whether Ship Bottom came up with the idea or another Jersey Shore town did, nobody seems to know.”
Long Beach Township and Barnegat Light have been selling holiday badges since the 2012 summer season while Beach Haven started in 2014; Harvey Cedars in 2017, and Surf City in 2017, he said. Kugel began collecting badges in his hometown before branching out to the other Island communities.
“So, now, each year, I actually go to the town hall to buy them, rather than trying to hunt them down,” Kugel said. “It was too difficult to try and track them down from previous years. Years ago, they weren’t that popular. Nobody knew about them.”
He said he looked on Facebook for some of the badges he didn’t initially have. Kugel is an administrator for a Facebook group, Beach Badge Collectors of Long Beach Island, where individuals share what they are willing to sell and what they’re looking to buy, he said.
“I’ve sold them for $100, and I’ve brought them for $100 because it’s all about how much you want it,” Kugel said.
Some collectors are looking for badges for sentimental reasons like the year they purchased their Island home, met their significant other, got married or began their family, he said.
“They collect from that point on, and that’s how this has grown,” Kugel said. “This is like a big thing now. People will post (on social media) does anyone know what this year’s badge looks like?”
He said his collection of badges wasn’t exactly intentional, but it also wasn’t by chance, either.
“Every year I would go and buy eight badges for the regular season. And at the end of the season, I took them off the (beach) bags and put them in a (plastic) bag and I put them in the closet,” Kugel said, adding he did it year after year until one year he took out all the badges.
He kept four of each of the eight badges he had purchased, and after seeing some displayed on a fish net in someone’s home, he decided to do something similar.
“I started with ’84 when I bought this house,” he said of his bayside home in Ship Bottom. “And I said, ‘Let me see if I can go backwards, actually.’ And I found like (badges from) ’67.’”
The availability of holiday beach badges kicks off the start of badge sales for the following summer, beginning as early as late October and running until around Christmas or when the towns sell out, Kugel said.
“Initially when the holiday badges were first offered, the manufacturer, Jersey Cape Tags, offered towns a few images/designs of what was available,” Kugel said. “And so that was the case from 2011 through 2013.”
Around 2014, developing technology allowed municipalities to submit their own artwork ideas for holiday beach badges, he said.
In Barnegat Light, longtime employee Brenda Kuhns has been designing the holiday badges since the borough began selling them in 2014, Kugel said. This year’s holiday badge is in memory of Kirk Larsen, who served as mayor for three decades prior to passing away unexpectedly in August.
Beach Haven and Ship Bottom’s holiday badges are designed by local elementary school students, while Harvey Cedars and Long Beach Township’s badges are collaborative efforts among their employees, he added.
Surf City jump started holiday badge sales in October, ordering 1,100 this year that are available until they sell out. The badge is $40 and comes in a gift box, Kugel said.
Barnegat Light offers its holiday badge in the first week of November, and this year 450 were ordered, he said. Badges are available for $42 at borough hall. An online form is also available on the borough’s website. All badges must be picked up at town hall.
Beach Haven and Harvey Cedars begin their holiday badge sales in mid-November with 1,000 and 250 available, respectively, Kugel said.
This year, Long Beach Township’s holiday badge sales began Nov. 28 with 4,000 ordered. Badges are available at the beach badge office on 68th Street, he said.
Ship Bottom ordered 1,000 holiday badges this year and began offering them Dec. 1, Kugel said.
Holiday badges and additional fun facts can be found in Kugel’s book 55 years of Long Beach Island Badges, published by Down The Shore Publishing in 2023.
— Gina G. Scala