Locally-crafted ornaments decorate state capitol Christmas tree
Courtesy of Canonsburg Senior Center
A hand-crafted ornament by Mary Kubas, left, and Glenna Jox adorns the Christmas tree in the state capitol rotunda. The Canonsburg Senior Center sends an ornament to Harrisburg every year.
Courtesy of Jack Eilber
The Waynesburg Senior Center craft group repurposed quilt squares dating back to the 1920s and 30s into festive Christmas ornaments, which trim the state capitol tree in Harrisburg. The groups stocking ornaments can also be admired at the Greene County Historical Society Museum.
Courtesy of Jack Eilber
This year marks the first year Burgettstown Senior Center has sent hand-crafted ornaments to the state capitol. The country-rustic beaded wreaths adorn the state capitol Christmas tree, which is the centerpiece of the capitol building rotunda.
Courtesy of Jack Eilber
For years, the Canonsburg Senior Citizens Center has hand-crafted a Christmas ornament and sent the decoration off to Harrisburg, to grace the bows of the state capitol tree. This year’s ornament is a hand-sewn state map by Mary Kubas and Glenna Jox.
This holiday season, handcrafted ornaments made by area older adults grace the bows of the Pennsylvania Capitol Christmas tree in Harrisburg.
“To me, making the ornament and sending it, knowing it’s going on the tree – I enjoyed it, I really did,” said Mary Kubas, who spends many happy hours each week at Canonsburg Senior Citizens Center.
Kubas said she and other seniors have looked forward to dreaming up an ornament design and working together to bring the ornament to life for years.
“I’m a craft person. I like doing stuff like that,” Kubas said. “I like to come up with ideas. I love making it.”
And the state legislators love seeing the ornaments made with love by seniors across the Commonwealth.
“The legislators and state employees appreciate their hard work making the tree beautiful,” said Deputy Secretary of Aging Stephen Horner. “It’s exciting, too, for the department, just receiving the decorations, looking at them, seeing where they’re coming from, the creativity. It’s special on our end, too.”
Horner said older adults across Pennsylvania have sent ornaments to the capitol for at least 30 years. This year, as in years past, hundreds of baubles decorate the two-story tree.
“It’s the centerpiece of the rotunda,” said Horner. “I’ve heard seniors say it’s a great honor. They take it very seriously. It brings pride to their community and their senior center, that they’re able to contribute and decorate the state capitol tree.”
Although the number of crafters at Canonsburg Senior Center has decreased in recent years, Kubas and her friend, Glenna Jox, had a good time pinpointing “Canonsburg” and “Harrisburg” on a map they sewed. Their map is edged in ornaments.
“It’s hanging on the tree somewhere,” Kubas said proudly.
The Canonsburg ornament is joined on the capitol tree by Waynesburg Community Center’s handmade stockings and Burgettstown Senior Center’s country-rustic wreaths.
“Somebody had donated old quilt squares. They’re really, really old – 1920s and 1930s. We made stockings,” said Tina Raber, who has worked for Blueprints for 32 years and serves as site supervisor at Waynesburg Senior Center.
Raber has led seniors in making ornaments for the past eight years.
“We have five people in our craft class. We had a cutting team and then we had a sewing team,” she said. “They were excited.”
Raber said the class was thrilled when a local news station aired a segment about the capitol’s tree earlier this month.
“I was sitting there, I was screaming, ‘Our stockings just came up on the news,'” said Raber with a laugh. “They were super excited.”
Michelle Prevost, coordinator at Burgettstown Senior Center, was also excited when an ornament she and one of her seniors handcrafted appeared in a state senator’s Facebook post.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” said Prevost, who said this is the first year Burgettstown sent ornaments to the capitol. “They were basically just a wooden bead wreath with either a red or green sparkly bow on it, twine for a hanger. They came out pretty good, actually.”
Prevost said it was hard getting a group together to craft.
“We’re still trying to regain people from COVID,” she said, adding she is looking forward to making ornaments again next year.
Horner said one of the best things about the senior ornaments is that crafting is an activity older adults enjoy, and this project is something to look forward to year after year.
“This is an activity that brings people together,” said Horner. “Older adults look forward to creating those ornaments.”
Indeed, Kubas and the Waynesburg craft group are already excited the 2022 holiday season.
“We’ve already got our theme for next year,” said Raber.