Politics rarely interferes with The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s wreath week. Our members span the political spectrum and we wouldn’t want it any other way. Politics did play a part in our 2019 pricing, however, and how the trend may continue next season has yet to be determined. We sometimes forget how many materials we use are made in China – wires for hanging hooks, picks for attaching both real and artificial materials, glass balls, tinsel and ornaments, and most importantly, ribbon. We usually do a fair bit of shopping at post-Christmas sales, and store the materials at our off-site storage unit in Brighton. During the fall run up prior to wreath week, we take stock of special needs and orders and do a bit of targeted shopping as well. This year we definitely experienced sticker shock. Some materials costs were almost 50% higher than in previous years. Luckily we had a stash of saved decorations so the full impact was not felt, and although we had raised the price of our fully decorated standard wreaths by $15, we kept the undecorated wreath prices constant. If the tariffs go away, we hope our costs will return to their 2018 levels. So in tribute to our Chinese manufacturers, today we feature a bright red outdoor wreath (red is considered a lucky color in China).