We want to point out that our wreath project is a physical as well as an artistic endeavor. Beginning with set-up, we haul countless boxes out of storage and into trucks, and unload into the First Lutheran Church of Boston’s basement down some rather hazardous steps. Then we re-assemble heavy collapsible tables, help unload the raw wreaths and greens from the delivery truck at the crack of dawn on Monday morning, and arrange our various easels and stations. Once the decorating starts, we are dashing up and down stairs picking our wreaths, spray painting elements when necessary, and carrying the now much heavier decorated wreaths to be checked at our desk/quality control area. The wreaths are then brought back upstairs into the courtyard for registering with the delivery committee. Our intrepid desk leaders do a fair amount of carrying up and down, possibly to get a bit of fresh air but often to take one more look at the wreaths once hung on walls and grates, as a final artistic check. Ten thousand steps is not difficult to achieve even though many hours are spent sitting or standing, arranging greens and wiring pinecones. Below is a wreath from 2009, ready to be carried up for delivery.

After yesterday’s amusing mismatch, we show a beautiful pair now gracing a Marlborough Street door. The bows match and are in the same place on each wreath. The decorations are perfectly balanced. Lots of extra greens enhance the basic balsam. Our members really do excel at this, even under the most trying circumstances. Without access to our easels, which make working much easier, these wreaths are a triumph.

Without the ability to gather in Boston for Wreath Week, many members stayed put in their homes or vacation homes outside Back Bay, where there are more materials to forage. The wreath below was made in the Berkshires, with locally gathered greens, cones and branches, and a few items, no doubt, from the nursery. The bow, with its black and white checked lining, was one of our favorites from past seasons.