From Memories to WREATHS

Celebrate this Christmas season with handmade wreaths brimming with vintage finds.

- HANNAH STRANDBERG

FROM TRUNK TO TREETOP, Cackie Trippe McCarty’s Christmas trees would drip with colorful baubles and figural glass ornaments she’d been collecting since the 1990s. After a “weight and balance” mishap involving a tree with one too many ornaments, she began to set up two trees every year—with one solely devoted to vintage ornaments. This love of vintage goods would eventually fuel a thriving holiday business.

In the fall of 2011, Cackie decided to craft her vintage ornaments into Christmas wreaths and sell them at the Atlanta Fair. Her creations caught the eyes of many who’d point to a specific ornament and say, “My grandmother had one of these!” Now she runs Glittermoon Vintage Christmas, a business that recycles old ornaments into beautiful, handmade decorations.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Timeless designs take time. “Generally, it takes parts of three days to make a wreath from start to finish,” Cackie says. “I am a devotee of precision and balance. That last 5 percent of the design can take as long as the first 95 percent. Each piece I make is unique; there will never be another one like it.”