PAIGE JONES PHOTO
MEEKER | Gus Halandras doesn’t remember exactly when he started making the giant holiday wreaths that adorn the family’s namesake building on Seventh and Main, but he knows it’s been at least 30 years, maybe 35 since he decided the building “could use some festive ornamentation” at Christmas.
The annual labor of love — ten wreaths each about four feet across — is about a week’s worth of work for Halandras, including three or four days out at the family ranch collecting materials — enough to fill three pickup loads — and another three or four days to construct the wreaths.
“It takes a long time,” Halandras says. “I can build about three in one day.”
The bases for the ten wreaths, which are about 4 feet in diameter, are salvaged metal rings from old mini-trampolines he found at the county landfill. Halandras collects pinyon boughs with cones, juniper boughs with berries, long-needled pine branches, and flexible evergreen boughs for filler.
“The more [juniper] berries, the more festive,” he explains, noting that he can’t find branches with berries every year. This year’s juniper berries are smaller than normal, and unusually dark blue compared to typical years.
The only materials he can’t get at the ranch are Colorado blue spruce branches, which he adds for color.
“I have to go around and ask for trimmings,” Halandras says.
He organizes the materials and then starts constructing the wreaths, using lightweight baling wire to attach the boughs to the metal ring. Once completed, his wife Christine attaches ribbon bows. “She says it makes it more Christmassy.”
The wreaths are installed at the Halandras Building, and given to family members for their homes.
“It’s just our way of saying Merry Christmas to our community.”
It’s something to be proud of, he says, when a community takes pride in the appearance of its homes and businesses, during the holidays and all year round.
By Niki Turner | [email protected]
