St. Mary's Women’s Guild hosts handmade Christmas market

When the ladies of the St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church Women’s Guild receive donated Christmas trees and wreaths to decorate, they aren’t in the best shape. 

Some are old and ragged, but this doesn’t scare the seasoned tree decorators.

“It is all about the transformation for me,” said Diane Monaghan. “We each come in with different ideas each year. We look online to see what is trending because we are competing with big stores. Using our creativity, we can transform these into the amazing decorations you see here.”

Parishioners Monaghan, Jackie DeAngelo and Jane Vorel have been on the tree-decorating team at the guild for years. Their own houses are full of unique trees with different themes each year, so it is just natural and fulfilling for them to do it for the guild. 

Longboaters enjoyed and purchased these trees and other handmade Christmas trinkets at the guild's annual Christmas Bazaar on Nov. 9. 

When decorating for the bazaar, Vorel is all about the ribbon. On the trees and wreaths, people found perfectly tied bows from Vorel and handmade angels that she made entirely out of ribbon.  

She was inspired by her granddaughter, who taught her how simple these angels are to make. Now, Vorel teaches classes to people in her condominium and at the church on how to make them. 

Along with the trees, the women of the guild contributed a variety of Christmas supplies, such as decorations, gifts and baked goods. All proceeds went to the hurricane relief fund of the church. 

Co-chairs Bonnie Schneider, Catherine Costello and Maggie Oberst have been leading meetings about the event for the past two months, which was later than usual due to the hurricanes. People can continue to buy goodies from the bazaar after mass on Sundays. 

“We were glad to be back together after the hurricanes and get our minds off of what happened,” said Schneider. “People got here earlier than we expected, so it was fairly busy today, which has been great. This event is just the best to get the decorations you need for the holidays and get your Christmas shopping done early.”