Before it was renamed by a developer around 1950, Christmas Island was known as Plummer Island. Even earlier, it was called Quimby Island, after Achsah Quimby (died 1852), the wife of the first settler of Langley Cove, Winthrop Langley (died 1839). Also earlier, the cove was known as Kimball Cove, after Fanny Kimball, a “courageous, one-woman pioneer” with a “sad story of life”, as told by historian Edgar H. Wilcomb in pages B12-B14 of his booklet, “Rambles About The Weirs”.

Christmas island is now a gated community of private homes; a gate at the bridge to the island, across Langley Cove, limits access to property owners and their guests. The name of the Christmas Island Resort, built in 1954, was somewhat misleading, as the resort was located not on the island, but on the mainland, opposite the island. In the spring of 2013, the resort closed permanently, after it was sold to a developer with plans to demolish the 45-room property and build 18 luxury townhouses. Before the wrecking balls and bulldozers could roll, on September 28, 2013, the vacant resort burned to the ground.

This fall view looking south across Langley Cove shows the extent of Paugus Bay visible from the Christmas Island Resort beach.