Deck the halls, Squamish style

It doesn’t get much more Squamish than this. 

Lindsay Wilson’s family has been doing brisk business selling homemade Christmas tree ornaments — made from old bicycle chains. 

The idea started with her kids’ wish to help out this year’s 37th annual Community Christmas Care drive. 

“I said, ‘Let’s do something bike oriented because that will be a hit in this town,’” Wilson recalled. “They are locally made, they are made from recycled materials — they hit all the requirements.”

She had seen the star-shaped chain ornaments somewhere online and so the family gave making them a whirl. 

“They were kind of time intensive, but easy,” she said. “It is basically just a tiny little star on a string, really simple.” 

The family of seven includes children Annika, 13; Kai, 10; Soren, 9; Sawyer, 7 and Myka, 4, who all contributed to the making of the ornaments in one way or another. 

“The little ones could do things like setting them out on the porch for people to pick up and putting them in the little bags and stuff.” 

Wilson only posted the ornaments for sale on the Bike Squamish Facebook page, but that was enough to get orders coming in, she said. 

“More than we could handle,” she added, with a laugh. 

At first, she only had to go as far as the family garage to gather up some old bike chains, but soon more were needed. 

One of the bike mechanics at Brackendale’s Republic Bicycles stepped up and gave the family a collection of old chains. 

He even cleaned them first.  

The family has sold about 60 of the ornaments. The sales raised $200 for Community Christmas Care, but with that campaign over, the family decided to give whatever other donations came in to Compassion Canada, a Christian charity that aims to improve the lot of children in poverty.  The Wilsons have all the orders they can handle for this year, so if you didn’t get one yet, you will have to wait until next Christmas.