Seven-foot Christmas wreath brings family together
Holiday decoration is a staple in family’s neighborhood
By Jada Haynes
ALBANY — On Pineknoll Avenue, there is a house that’s displayed a seven-foot Christmas wreath for 21 years. Shirley Austin, who built the decoration with her husband, Charles Austin, said the wreath is a staple of the neighborhood.
“People say this is the landmark,” Shirley Austin said Tuesday. “‘Go to the wreath and turn.’ That’s how you get wherever you want to go. And if I don’t put it up, I get calls.”
As for making the wreath, Austin and her husband fashioned it together in 1997.
“My husband, he cut the wood out of a tree on the car patio,” Austin said. “When Rosenberg’s went out business, I went up and bought all the garland that was in the store. That’s what this garland is.”
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