DIY Holiday Creativity

For many people who celebrate the holidays, Christmas decorating is one of the most enjoyable parts of the season. While “engineering plastics” and “decorating” are not so commonly put together, people have found some remarkable ways of using polymer products to do some creative work! We’ve found a few highlights.

First on the list is the “Winter White Village” found on Pinterest. The idea is to use Touch ‘N Spray polyurethane white foam to create snowbanks as a backdrop for some holiday themed buildings. Simple, and it works. This is the picture used in this blog (found below) and the pin can be found here.

Secondly is the “UHMW skating rink”. We’ve blogged about this in years past, white UHMW polyethylene makes an excellent skating rink surface! It’s very slick and strong and can actually improve your skating ability on real ice as skating on UHMW requires about 20-30% more effort with your stride. In this case we don’t have a particular website for you: most of the good pictures are on commercial websites where if you try to click on them they want you to sign up for their service. You can still see some good pictures of this application by simply going to Google, click on the “images” tab and then searching for “UHMW skating rink.” UHMW sheet in 4′ x 10′ dimensions is readily available from North American plastic distributors. You just need to be ready for the pricing which can range from $300-$500 per sheet depending on what thickness you go with: 3/8″ or 1/2″ are the most common.

Thirdly, acetal Christmas-themed guitar picks would make a great stocking stuffer! Acetal, which is a very hard and rigid plastic that often replaces small metal parts, makes an excellent guitar pick. These holiday themed picks would go great with caroling and while websites do sell the finished picks, there’s no reason you could not buy a plain white pick, get some vinyl stickers and do your own designs! To check out some available designs click here.

And finally, what would the holidays be without a Christmas Tree? Trees made of recycled drinking bottles are becoming more commonplace. We think it’s a great idea to educate people, children especially, on the need to recycle. Plastics are easily – and economically – recycled after all! Many pictures and examples of these trees are available as inspiration to you. Maybe do one this year to educate your own family on the benefits of recycling? You can find an excellent example of such a tree by French artist Fabrice Peltier here.

We hope this examples inspire you to see how you can use plastics in your Christmas season celebration!