Christmas in Bermuda has its own charm.

Artist Kathleen Emmerson hopes she’s captured it with a series of Bermuda-themed Christmas ornaments.

“My favourite ornament that I have made is one of Santa flying over Bermuda,” she said. “The way I have done it you can see the lights twinkling on the Island below.

“I felt I wanted to celebrate more of Bermuda. Each ornament offers something different about Bermuda. There is a moongate that might appeal to honeymooners. There are ones with animals such as turtles and seahorses — those have been very popular. One lady who bought an ornament with a turtle said her family had just came off the glass bottom boat and wanted to commemorate that. That was nice.”

Mrs Emmerson has worked as an artist for many years but got her start painting Christmas ornaments at Walt Disney World.

“I am married to a Bermudian,” she said. “At one point we relocated to Florida. I found a small job painting ornaments for a tree at Disney World celebrating the release of the animated film Tangled.”

The theme park required between 80 to 90 hand-painted ornaments.

“Surprisingly, I didn’t get tired of it,” she said. “I really liked doing it, and that opened a new chapter in my life.”

She moved to Bermuda more than 30 years ago to decorate shop windows for the now defunct department store, HA & E Smith.

“When it comes to art, I am self-taught,” she said. “I just try different things.”

Creating the ornaments requires hours of very detailed painting.

“They are made of shatterproof plastic, so they travel well,” she said. “Each one has about six or eight layers of paint. I add a bit of sparkle.

“It requires so much detail work that I have to take a break from it after about four hours.”

Mrs Emmerson will sell and customise her ornaments at the BUEI gift shop on Thursday and Friday. She’ll continue selling them in January at the Bermuda Craft Market at Dockyard.

For more information see her on Facebook under KEmmersonart or e-mail kemmersonart@gmail.com.