Christmas is in full swing in our home! Decorating for our Coastal Christmas theme was fun, easy, and little sandy. We’re spending our last Christmas in our small San Diego apartment and wanted to capitalize on the smaller canvas for our beachy theme.
Collecting the materials to bring the vision to life was fairly easy. No – I didn’t go to the beach. Real seashells and starfish are an important part of the ocean ecosystem. Instead, I opted for ordering manufactured replicas from Oriental Trading or shopping in person at Michaels.
The decorating materials were exactly what you would think…
- Seashells
- Starfish
- Fishing Nets
- Sand Dollars
- Rafia
- Rope
We also scoured local and major stores for ocean/coastal themed ornaments. Michaels and Kohls had wonderful beachy ornaments this year, including this adorable glass blowfish.
Of course, I used my current supply of standard glass ball ornaments to supplement the specialty ones. I chose to use silver and blue to fill space on the tree and the garlands hung around our apartment.
Yes, I just said, “garlands hung around our apartment”. Our apartment is quite small and therefore, we have a small 4′ tree on a table. However, we have enough ornaments to fill a 12′ tree. Because we collect ornaments as travel souvenirs, there’s a bit of sadness if we don’t have space for them all. Solution? Hang them on a garland. Considering we already owned about 75′ of garland, this was an easy situation to accommodate.
Fishing nets were hung around to fill small spaces. They were perfect for placing starfish – simply wrap the rope around their legs!
Oh, here’s a simple DIY! Fake Sand Dollar + Plain Silver Napkin Ring + Hot Glue… very festive napkin ring! Even better, the sand dollar can be easily removed at the end of the season.
Naturally, I made a number of decorations specifically for the coastal theme, including a Seas & Greetings banner, a JOY sign using a ship’s wheel as the “O”, and some charming (and ridiculously easy) gift wrapping. Stay tuned over the coming weeks to see the tutorials.
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