Video: Changing Family: Creative Christmas Wreaths

[bitsontherun wKiC9KaE]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Wreaths have been around for thousands of years.

They’ve adorned the heads of ancient Europeans and even crowned triumphant athletes at the earliest Olympics.

In the Christian faith, wreaths are placed on doors to celebrate the birth of Christ.

They are often made of evergreen as a symbol of strength during the harshest weather of the year.

But you can make a wreath out of almost anything.

People in every department at Baptist Memorial Golden Triangle recently came together to create Christmas wreaths.

Thirty one, in all, were auctioned off.

Money raised will go to the Salvation Army Toy Drive.

Jim Holloway is a chaplain at the hospital.

He says, ” Awesome. The creativity people had, to put it all into effect so we could help out the children with the toys.”

From the traditional, to the snow kissed, to breathtaking arrays of ornaments, folks came from miles around to bid on the handmade works of art.

Elaine Chance is the manager of the Maternal Child Department.

She explains,  “It started out with a plain evergreen wreath, and some of them you can’t see the evergreen wreath, they’ve got so many decorations on it.”

Diane Stinson works in the business office.

She says, ” We have ribbons. We have balls. We have apples. And by the way, the name of the wreath is a an Apple Wreath. You have to put on. You have to take off. Got to see what looks good. You got to see what don’t look right. So, it’s just a lot of love. A lot of love, that’s right. ”

Jim adds, ” We got a nativity scene on it, and I made a woodworking piece to put on it, put Merry Christmas on it, so it’s old fashioned.”

Elaine concludes, ” I’m blown away by the creativity. We’ve got one over there that is made out of cocktail napkins that is absolutely gorgeous, and another one that the employees were very creative and put little stethoscopes on and little bottles of medicine and it’s just really pretty.”

Good to know.

When it comes to wreaths, if you take your time, you can make something beautiful out of almost anything.

Baptist Memorial Golden Triangle is hoping to make the wreath auction an annual event.