The holiday season isn’t all that different from the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ regular season for fan Jaime Svennes. She makes wreaths with the team’s colours and logo, to decorate her house in Martensville.
“Every night I get home around 6 p.m. and I’m here until about midnight,” she said.
She said each wreath takes at least seven hours to make and that she finishes around six a week.
She made her first wreath a few years ago and posted it on Facebook. Friends noticed her artwork and she began selling them. She now also makes hockey wreaths for those who order them, but her love is the CFL and the Riders.
She said that around 20 people watch the game in her garage on Saturdays and estimates that she owns more than 1,000 pieces of memorabilia. She said she has been a fan for three decades.
“When we lost this year I was crying,” she said.
Her passion spills over into other holidays. In her basement, surrounded by bobble heads of players, a piece of Taylor Field and flags, is a life-sized mummy Halloween decoration. It has a Rider’s toque on its head and a green and white scarf around its shoulders.
“Once you love them, it’s like your favourite food,” she said.
She sells the wreaths but said she barely earns back her expenses. She said she mostly sells them so that other fans can enjoy their favourite team all year long.
“It’s not because of the team, they don’t win every year,” she said.
“It’s the fans. If there weren’t the fans the Riders wouldn’t be… I guess Winnipeg.”
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