decorating

Getting Ready For a Seacoast Christmas

As a Zazzle designer I have been busy updating my Holiday Store with new beach and tropical themed Christmas products. This blog has also been converted to a partial website for my store. You can bypass all that by choosing “blog” and continue to read as always.

Christmas in the Tropics

Anyone who lives in a warm climate will probably have Christmas needs that differ from the norm. Sea and sand designs take the place of snow and winter scenes. I know because I live in Florida year round. For that reason I began designing with people like me in mind. We love seashells, sand dollars and starfish. We choose to send holiday greetings with warm tropical scenes. And, we decorate our homes with seasonal sayings on pillows with starfish and sand dollars.

Christmas Throw Pillows

Tropical Tree Skirts

Christmas Cards With a Beach Theme

Send special cards this holiday season from a tropical location. Be sure to check the top of this site for current sales and coupon codes to enjoy the savings.

View my Christmas Card collection and find something unique to mail this year. Sales go on all year long and which makes every day a good one to stock up and get a jump on the holiday season.

Holiday Aprons – View the Apron Collection

Customers love the new, all-over print, aprons. They come in three sizes for all family members.

Aprons make the baking season a bit less stressful while keeping your clothes looking fresh. Long, bib aprons with custom text also make wonderful gifts for bakers and cooks in the family.

Custom Family Dinner Menus, Just For Fun!

Menus for a family dinner can be created easily using one of the many templates in my stores. Many menu samples have space for the name of the cook next to the food they cooked or baked. This way everyone knows who to credit for the delicious holiday food!

See more Menu Templates for events and occasions.

I also sell some pretty awesome tree ornaments with templates. Create your own holiday ornaments to commemorate an occasion (first Christmas, new baby, new home), celebrate an engagement, remember a pet, capture a child’s face.

Ornaments For the Tree

I make tropical themed ornaments as well as traditional designs. All ornaments have places for your text and some have photo templates as well.

Pink plumeria, heart ornament for newlywed couples celebrating a first married Christmas. — Married Christmas

Please also visit the Gifts page where personalized gifts for all can be found. Men and teen boys tend to be difficult to buy for – I know, I raised three boys! My sons were more into music than sports, but I design for both because teenage boys are a forgotten group.

Read the Blog

Conchs

A Living Horse Conch in the Shallows

Camping

Hillsborough River Camping Trip

Boating

Quiet Day On The Boat

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Uses For Seashells

What do you do with the seashells you collect? Finding pretty shells on the beach is fun, but then what? Do you take them home and clean them for display or use them to make crafty items?

Beach shells can sit alone as a decorative accent in the bathroom, on the fireplace mantle, or on the kitchen window sill. They are good reminders of a fun vacation or trip to the ocean.

Seashells are useful as q-tip holders and nightlights (I have a couple) and even planters. Years ago the Calusa Indians in Florida used them as soup bowls and digging tools. Seashells were so plentiful in Florida and other places that they became a source of currency. The cowry shell was used most often as money, but other types of shells were used according to what was available.

Making Seashell Garland

Close Up Detail of the Blue Ocean Themed Chris... — Image by Mastery of Maps via Flickr

Christmas in the tropics means decorating with seashells of course! And you don’t have to live in a warm climate to have a themed Christmas tree either. When I lived in central Florida, lots of crafty people would have their seashell ornaments ready to sell at the local craft fairs and shops in the Fall months. We have a painted sand dollar with a music attachment (that no longer works) that was purchased many years ago. I haven’t dug it out this year or I’d add a photo.

Among the coastal Christmas ornaments, painted sand dollars are very popular because of their flat surface, but drilling holes in shells for hanging or incorporating their shapes into angels and other holiday images. Painted, glittered and decorated shells of all types abound for your tree trimming pleasure, whether you buy them already made or opt to do it yourself.

Personally I prefer the unaltered state of the shells since they are beautiful works of nature and don’t need glitter and ribbons to make them pretty, in my opinion. That way the decorations or garland can be used year round. I’ve found that many shells and pieces of shells have ready-made holes in them and are perfect for stringing or hanging on a decorative wire or ribbon. Making a garland of shells is a bit more work, but can be very impressive and you can make one without using a drill.

The arrowhead sand dollars have many holes in them naturally and ribbon or twine can be tied to them without harming their natural appearance. In fact, you can also wrap starfish (sea stars) and many other shells and make a natural string of shells for adding to your Christmas tree or to use for decorating a porch or other area.

Pam, at the “i love shelling” blog has photos of her sand dollar and starfish garland and she also tempts us with her “sand dollar cookies” on the same page. She is lucky enough to live at the beach so finding shells to use to decorate is not a problem. For the rest of us I have included some helpful links below for buying shells and sea shell decorations.
Merry Tropical Christmas! or as Pam says “Shellebrate the Season!”