island Christmas decorating

We were so excited about decorating for Christmas this year.  Last year we went away to Sri Lanka and the year before that Arthur was only 6 months old so we didn’t really go all out.

So, we have a lovely little artificial tree and some really lovely decorations we’ve collected over the past few years, a lot of them have been sent out by Mum and Dad.

But on top of that I wanted to do something to celebrate and recognise that our Christmas is an ‘island christmas’ – you know, in case the hot weather didn’t do that enough already!

My first place to go for a little inspiration was, of course, Pinterest.  I created a lovely little board full of ideas for our island Christmas!

Follow Seychelles Mama’s board Christmas: island style on Pinterest.

Feeling all inspired I started collecting some shells and driftwood.

I’ve wanted to make a driftwood Christmas tree pretty much since we’ve lived here.  Since we had a lovely one as our ‘main tree’ I thought I’d just make a little one this year, as a bit of a test.

I found a few lovely pieces on the beach when we were out walking the dog.  A week or so later we were there with some friends when we discovered a HUGE amount of oyster shells.  My friends little girl collected loads, and I took around 10.  There’s a pearl farm on the beach we were at so we think they were cast offs from there.  We didn’t care, they are shiny and lovely and I couldn’t wait to  make something with them!

I initially wanted to attach my driftwood onto some pallet wood but decided since our walls are white anyway I could just hang my tree on the wall and it would still look pretty.

I tried to use fishing wire at first but after chatting with my Mum, and realising just how fiddly fishing wire can be, I used some material to tie it all together.  I actually think In the end, it added a little something using the material!

The material I used is from some old curtains that were in the house when we moved in.

I decided to use my little oyster shells as Christmas decorations for my little tree!

Because every christmas tree needs a star, I finished it off in true island style with a salt dough star fish!

My salt dough recipe if you want to make some too!

I was really pleased with how my little driftwood tree came out! I know it’s not perfect, but that kinda works right?
The day we collected all the oyster shells I also found a lovely big piece of driftwood I knew I wanted to use for something.  I decided that I would have it above our patio doors.
So, I made some more salt dough starfish.  Attached them on to the driftwood with fishing wire.  My first idea was to hang some of the oyster shells underneath.  I then remembered we hadn’t yet found a home for our lovely Christmas decorations we’d bought in Sri Lanka last year.   So, I attached them underneath the starfish.  The wood is suspended above the patio doors using more of the old curtain materials.

I think these two little things definitely shout island Christmas. They were super easy to make and I’m really happy with how they turned out!!  It’s nice to have a mix of traditional Christmas as well as embracing that  Christmas for us isn’t really all that traditional!

What do you think?  Do you make or have any Christmas decorations that reflect your home?