Winning wreaths

We don't call our annual wreath creation contest Circles of Caring for nothing.

Once again, we at the Times Union are blown away by the creativity of those who submitted more than 60 wreaths this year. Some literally lit up the room; others were thematic (from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to a "Christmas spider" tale); but they all made us smile.

More than that, all of the wreaths were donated to a nonprofit organization and a retirement community in the Capital Region to help spread some holiday cheer to others: The Visiting Nurse Association and Brookdale Niskayuna, an assisted living community, split this year's donations. By our calculations, since 2015, we've donated about 400 wreaths through this contest.

As part of Circles of Caring, we have winners in four different categories, and three runners-up, determined by more than 500 votes in an Albany Times Union Facebook photo gallery. Those seven creators will each get a gift card from Hewitt's Garden Centers, the sponsor of this project.

This year's winners and runners-up include:

ADULT

Winner: Carol Wold, of Altamont

Runner-up: Marilyn Sirco, of Melrose

TEEN

Winner: Shelby Bilicki, of Albany

CHILD

Winner: Ryan Autrey, of Slingerlands

Runner-up: Ethan Filippelli, of Loudonville

GROUP

Winner: Susan Bollentin, Michele Crisafulli, Deidre Keating, Wendy Relyea and Sue Weiss

Runner-up: The Guilderland Food Pantry

Thank you to all who submitted wreaths — we will have an online gallery at timesunion.com with photos of all the creations.