Everyone knows that Portimão is a cash-strapped council – so it was really nice to see that they decided to do something different this Christmas that didn’t cost the earth – literally!

All of their decorations were made out of recycled plastic bottles – and they looked amazing! 

We have been unable to find out anything else about the decorations – particularly who made them – so if you know – do tell us!

As you can see – some of them were even lit up at night – we loved the igloo – and to give you an idea of scale, a small child could easily walk through the door and sit inside!

Santa’s house was impressive too! you can see the detail and the work involved here in this shot, as each of the bottles had been painted in the right colours:

They even had flowers!

Many of the shops had candy canes – which made for a nice arty black and white shot!

There were also traditional Christmas trees and other decorations, but these were found outside the shops who had provided their own extra trimmings!

The recycled decorations were in stark contrast to many other councils – like Lagoa – who went for the more traditional approach, like this life-size nativity scene:

But there was something quite magical about the recycled decorations in Portimão – so well done to them for doing something different! There was even a Santa with his reindeer and giant presents stacked outside the shops all made from recycled bottles.

We’ll leave you with our favourite – the giant Christmas tree made out of plastic bottle flowers:

And we wish you all a peaceful and thoughtful Christmas and New Year.