Decorating a boat for Christmas

[rpwillia]

I have never done it, but the town dock normally transient only) has asked my sailing club if we would keep our boats there for 2 months over the Christmas season and decorate them (free slip and electric). Are there easy and simple/unique ways to do this? I have a target budget of $100.

 

[dmax]

I would just pull strings of lights up with your halyards and topping lift, run them alongside the rigging - would look great.

 

[JoeWhite]

You can get LED Christmas string lights at target for less than $10.00 per string for a 20 foot length. They plug into each other for increased length. Rope lights are an other choice.

 

[kappykaplan]

I would just pull strings of lights up with your halyards and topping lift, run them alongside the rigging - would look great.

 

[jssailem]

There are all sorts of LED lights for lighting your boat. Rope lights can work. They can be programmed to produce multi color displays.

I’ve seen inflatable Santa’s on the bows and reindeer/Santa sleigh projects taking up the bow and cabin. Your imagination is the only limiting factor.

 

[rgranger]

I put my boat in the Charleston X-mas parade last year.... just a simple string of lights... I plugged an auto-inverter into the cigarette lighter to power the lights... easy peasy.

 

[marcham]

We do this at our docks .... Like others have said, use a halyard. I zip tie the lights to a rope, then haul the 2 ropes/lights (one towards the bow, one towards the stern) with a mast halyard. This way, there's no wind strain on the LED light string. Attaching a rope to the halyard (as opposed to just the lights) avoids loosing the halyard in the mast.

Candy canes and other misc decorations get attached to the stanchions, "icicles" hang from the boom...

I think I spent $80 (canuck dollars) for about 140 ft of lights along with an extension cord, still going strong.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Search craigslist for some used ones to stretch your budget a bit further. I would also consider some colored lights to wash the cabin, cockpit, deck, etc