Bermuda's artists splash their talents everywhere -- even on their Christmas trees. "We like having a full tree, and we like having plenty on it,'' said painter Mr. Otto Trott. "If you want to compare it to my paintings, I paint landscapes, people, almost any subject matter, and I usually put a lot of contrasting things in,'' Mr. Trott said. "I like to make my paintings really exciting, but harmonious at the same time,'' he said. "That's the way my Christmas tree is. "There are a lot of contrasting things that are mixed together in a really exciting but harmonious way. "There is lots of colour and light.'' Mr. Trott said he and his wife like to get a big tree, and most of their decorations are store-bought. "There are a couple of things that our Trees liven up with artisan touch her banana tree dolls, uses natural materials like magnolia pods, walnuts, and leaves from the coconut, palmetto and royal palm trees, to make Christmas decorations for her own home and for sale to others. "Christmas is my favourite time,'' she said. An angel might have a banana leaf body, a head made from a walnut, and wings fashioned from grapefruit leaves. "I travel all over the Island,'' looking for materials, she said. "People see me hanging from trees.'' Each Christmas, she has two Christmas trees in her North Shore, Pembroke home. One is decorated with popcorn chains and other ornaments she has made, the other with home-made decorations that friends have given her.

Mr. Will Collieson, who is known for his "found'' art and decorating the display windows at Smith's department store, said he is not normally a "tinselly'' type of guy. "The only thing that I do differently is I make Christmas wreaths,'' to hang around his house, Mr. Collieson said. Using Spanish moss that hangs from Bermuda trees, Mr. Collieson fashions a wreath shape, then decorates the wreaths with berries from pepper bushes which resemble holly berries. Mr. Collieson said wreaths were also featured in Smith's windows at the department store last Christmas. The display featured wreaths made from a variety of materials, like conduit. "You can do some really interesting things,'' he said. Mr. Collieson said he has put up a Christmas tree the last couple of years, "but I'm not really a traditionalist.'' "We do have a tree,'' he said, "but it tends to get the same old lights and the same old decorations that everybody else uses.'' Painter Ms Diana Tetlow said she always gets a huge Christmas tree -- one more than nine feet tall -- and her style of decoration is "completely traditional.'' "It has always been red, silver, and gold, plus anything that my kids made when they were in primary school,'' like coffee tin lids decorated with glitter, Ms Tetlow said. Her tree also features figures of Santa Claus and his family, which Ms Tetlow made from felt years ago, and angels made from silver and gold braid with real feather wings taken from a pillow case. Tiny lights decorate the tree, and "we do not have them flashing,'' Ms Tetlow said. PHOTO NATURAL GLITTER -- Mrs. Ronnie Chameau, shown here with some of her Christmas decorations, makes them from natural materials like banana leaves, walnuts, and magnolia pods.

TREE-MENDOUS -- Each Christmas, Mrs. Ronnie Chameau sets up two Christmas trees. This one is decorated with popcorn chains and decorations she made from wood.