Local wreath makers get busy. For some, it’s a craft handed down five generations.
By Jessica Hardy
Wreaths are a time-honored holiday tradition that bring the fresh and woodsy fragrance of evergreen fir boughs to homes and centerpieces. Locally, crafters from across the Peninsula have been busy creating wreaths for consumers to enjoy during the holiday season and winter months.
Judy Astbury of Penobscot putting limbs together to make a wreath. Photo b y Jessica Hardy.
Wreath-making requires significant preparation and are time-consuming to make. Fir trees are harvested for the tips, which are cut about six to seven inches in length. Sustainable tipping allows the trees to be cut so that they come back even fuller next year.
Judy Astbury of Penobscot started making wreaths in 2014 and makes 200-300 pieces a year. She makes her robust, double wreaths with fresh evergreen tips decorated with bows and pine cones.
“I like making double wreaths so they look fuller and don’t come apart.” Astbury said.
The Young family in Sedgwick operates A Family Tradition and produces wreaths ranging from six inches to six feet. Mona Young and her family are a five-generation family of wreath makers and produce hundreds of wreaths a year. This year, they are making a six-foot wreath to go on the Castine lighthouse at Dyce’s Head.
“My grandmother taught me to make them and it was about survival back then,” Young said.. “From there, of course my mother, to me, my kids and grandkids. It’s five generations deep.”
The Young family also use fir trees but sometimes use other tree tips such as cedar and pine in their arrangements. This time of year the family is busy and trying to keep up with demand.
“It is a dying art.” Young said, adding that in previous generations wreath-making was an important part of making money before Christmas. “Not many people do it anymore.”
Young and her family also make artificial wreaths and centerpieces for those who are allergic or aren’t able to have live plants.
Mike Astbury limbing up branches to use for wreaths. Photo by Jessica Hardy.
Wreaths weren’t always just a holiday decoration, but symbols of celebration and remembrance. The tradition originated in Ancient Rome and Greece and is made in a circular shape made out of leaves and flowers. The shape was a symbol of eternity and evergreens for life and hope.
Theresa Gove of Deer Isle started making wreaths as a child with her mother. In 2020, Gove and her friends started the Hero's Wreath Project to honor veterans in the area using donated supplies with the help of the American Legion, local middle school students, and other volunteers.
“This was a very heart warming experience, and sometimes an emotional experience, too. A veteran accompanied the group of volunteers at each grave site. We would place a wreath on a veteran site, say thank you or bless you,” Gove said.
Unfortunately, 2025 will be Gove’s last year of Veteran Wreaths, as the cost has become too great to cover, she said.
Maine-based Wreaths Across America, which every year places wreaths on the headstones of service members at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, has begun its southward journey. The wreaths are expected to arrive this weekend on Saturday, Dec. 13, at the cemetery where more than 400,000 service members are buried.
A wreath after last week’s snow storm, made by Karen Eaton of Deer Isle. Photo by Jessica Hardy.
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