SALEM, N.H. — Imagine a Festival of Trees — but with wreaths.
Picture it locally, scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 5, in Windham.
Let’s look inside our crystal ornament. It’s coming into focus, and so clearly, too. The technology today is remarkable.
Visitors stomp their boots on the stoop and enter the big red doors under the stone arch and drift into the Searles School and Chapel function hall.
Above is the barrel-vaulted ceiling, and in the room off the foyer to one side are cookies and cocoa and music.
In the opposite room are 100 or more wreaths, white or green.
They are numbered and decorated with ornaments and hung with gift cards, gift certificates and such.
Music plays. It’s a song about Jack Frost, chestnuts roasting and Santa in his sleigh.
Is that live piano we hear?
Is that Santa we see? Yes, it is.
He has cookies and cheer and a listening ear.
Oh, and now he’s posing for photos with kids and older adults.
Who is that fellow bouncing around the room in the green suit and impossibly joyful smile?
Right, right, Buddy the Elf. Buddy is here, too. Hi, Buddy. Hi, Santa.
All ages are meandering the Southern New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce’s Festival of Wreaths.
Each wreath, to be raffled, bears the name of its sponsor. We recognize many of the names of these local businesses.
Visitors can purchase 26 tickets for $10 and drop their tickets in boxes by wreaths they hope to win.
Five hundred or more people will have visited the display by the time the event ends. The winners will be drawn, announced and notified.
The next day, early Friday morning, wreaths will be arranged inside Eastern Bank, a platinum sponsor, on Route 28 in Salem.
Winners will come to the glass building to pick up their wreaths, greeted by bank branch manager and Vice President Kelly Khan.
They will peer over her shoulder, and there, inside the glass room, will be the wreaths.
Spirit of giving
Meanwhile, as we now turn our eyes from our crystal ornament, and minor reverie, we dive back to months earlier, late summer.
Workshopping and planning is underway for the festival at the chamber’s office at the Salem Train Depot.
Here is Cindi Woodbury, the chamber president.
She says the idea for the Festival of Wreaths, now in its third year, came from a chamber board meeting when the region and nation was emerging from the pandemic.
There was a desire to get people together in a relaxing way that didn’t involve a lot of heavy lifting, something simple.
“We wanted to do something a little bit low-key,” Woodbury says. “Something that anyone and everyone could attend and enjoy Christmas music, the spirit.”
They invite residents from assisted living communities and nursing homes.
The chamber, which represents seven towns, hosts a business after-hours event for its members and guests at the Searles School and Chapel on the night before the festival.
They have food and desserts and music.
“I just love everyone getting together,” Woodbury says. “We have Santa and Buddy the Elf. I get to see everyone relaxing and having a good time in the busy season.”
And here is Pat Hargreaves, the festival’s Santa, and whose father, Thomas Hargreaves, was a local Santa Claus before him.
Both Santas have ridden in the Salem Holiday Parade, with his dad playing the red-suited leading role for several years before he died in 2012.
Thomas told his son the key to being Santa is: “Be joyful. Be happy. Enjoy doing it.”
Hargreaves is a dedicated chamber and city of Salem booster and volunteer and a sought-after Santa who brings his North Pole energy to the wreath festival.
He also donates all the proceeds from his Santa gigs at parties and events to local charities or individuals in need. Last year, he gave the money to a local senior citizen who needed help paying heating bills over the winter.
The year before, he gave his $1,100 Santa fees to the Pleasant Street United Methodist Church food pantry in Salem.
Hargreaves, a Salem native, U.S. Army veteran and for 34 years the owner of Pat’s Key “N” Lock, also brings an advanced Santa sense to his Claus work.
He knows that no kid is good 100% of the time. Aim for 90% and tell the truth, he tells them.
Also to not get greedy with their list of wants. Let’s keep it real, the list doable. Santa has a lot of work to do this season and can make only so many iPads and PlayStation 5s.
Santa tells the children to remember that they can always talk to their parents. Santa had a mom and dad, and they were there for him.
“No matter how bad you think it will be, you can always talk to mom and dad, they are in your corner,” he says. “They will always be there for you.”
Good cheer
Also in the depot is Nick Distelbrink, a chamber board member and ambassador whose most vital roles just might be Buddy the Elf in the holiday season and the Southern New Hampshire Yeti in January and February.
He is the chamber’s good friend, a jolly fellow in his own right and a dedicated and civic-minded soul, too.
He can be found bounding about the holiday parade, zigzagging from one side to the other, high-fiving kids, and handing out candy canes and chocolate.
Distelbrink dives head first into his elf persona. Buddy has some definite likes — and a few dislikes.
The dislikes include bullies and people who do not take holidays seriously and also pasta.
He does not like pasta with syrup or pasta of any kind.
He does like deep-dish pizza with extra cheese and sausage, bacon, ham and beef. Also cherry cola and Disney movies.
He has no problem with people who make slurping noises when they come to the bottom of a cup of cherry cola.
Buddy’s favorite songs are anything by Metallica. It gets Buddy pumped before he goes out and does his favorite thing. Making people happy. He likes seeing people happy.
But no pasta, please. He does like Asian cuisine. Spicy is good.
The event’s chair, Patty Trudel, a chamber ambassador, says that Santa and Buddy make a dynamic duo, a terrific comedy team.
Trudel and Woodbury both get a warm feeling when somebody wins a wreath and gives it to someone, especially when the person is in need or lonely.
Khan says that it was a joy to see the Festival of Wreaths winners pick up their prizes at the bank in December 2023.
“That was one of the best days last year,” she says.
She is already excited for this year’s festival.
It’s a free event, and all are welcome.
Preschool kids and elderly folks take a seat at the crafts table coloring and decorating small wooden ornaments.
Trudel remembers seeing a mom who has nine children, all homeschooled, come to the festival with her kids.
“It was a break for her,” she says.
It fulfilled the festival’s aim, providing a free day of simple joys around the holidays.
We look into our crystal ornament, shaped like a snowman.
The frosted glass clears, and we see the Searles room and guests.
Buddy has a candy cane in hand. Santa is ho-ho-hoing to beat the band.
Simple joys at Christmas.