Wiscasset Creative Alliance recently announced that TREATs, a bakery café in Wiscasset, is the People’s Choice winner of Wreaths Around the Holidays 2024. Nine decorated wreaths were on view to the public during the event, which happens each year during Wiscasset Holiday Marketfest in early December.
For the contest, local businesses are invited to decorate a wreath, which are then put on display in the Holiday Gift Shop in the Nickels-Sortwell barn. Shoppers are invited to vote for their favorite.
Brie Soares with the wreath she created for TREATS’ submission to Wreaths Around the Holidays 2024. Tim Peltzer photo
Treats employee, Brie Soares, who is frequently behind the counter helping customers, was the designer of the winning wreath.
“I think it’s a lovely event, and I do some wreath making for friends and family at home,” Soares wrote in an email to the Wiscasset Creative Alliance. “I don’t make wreaths except [for] what I find in my backyard and the surrounding forest for neighbors and family.”
A striking component of Soares’ wreath were the colorful, dried flowers, which included gomphrena, nigella pods and hydrangea, about half of which were grown in her summer garden and the rest purchased from a local flower farm.
“My design was based on the elements,” she wrote. “I tried to include a representation of the 4 elements.”
The other eight businesses that submitted wreaths were First National Bank, First Federal Savings & Loan of Bath, Friends of Wiscasset Public Library, Garden Club of Wiscasset, J. Edward Knight & Co., Maine Health Primary Care, Water Lily Flowers & Gifts, and Wiscasset Ambulance Service.
At the end of Marketfest, the decorated wreaths were donated to assisted living communities Edgecomb Green and Richmond Eldercare. According to Wreaths organizer, Chelsea Taylor-Smith,
“When I dropped off the wreaths at Edgecomb Green, the nurse I spoke with was sp appreciative,” said Chelsea Taylor-Smith, organizer of Wreaths Around the Holidays. “She couldn’t wait to show the residents and said they were going to enjoy them so much.”
Photos of all the Wreaths Around the Holidays 2024 wreaths and photos of previous People’s Choice winners can be found at wiscassetholidaymarketfest.com.
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