Grave blankets: Evergreen remembrances are a suburban tradition

Their exact origin is lost to history.

Some say grave blankets began in Scandinavia, where families would place evergreen boughs on graves in winter, a simple decoration to add color in a stark, white landscape where fresh flowers wouldn’t survive.

The tradition made its way to the New World and is prominent in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where Scandinavians settled in large numbers.

But you don't have to go that far to see the tradition in action.

From now until Christmas, drive by any florist or garden center in the metropolitan area — particularly ones near cemeteries — and you’ll see signs advertising grave blankets. 

'This is for the living'

They can be simple or ornate, embellished with ribbons and ornaments and artificial flowers impervious to the weather. They can be large — to cover the entire footprint of the gravesite — or smaller, to cover just a portion. Some call the smaller variety a “grave pillow.” 

“All of this is for the living,” says Joe Pugni Jr., of Grayrock Memorials and Cemetery Services in Valhalla, New York, a stone’s throw from the massive Gate of Heaven Cemetery. “This gives people comfort, it gives them purpose, to remember. It’s a memorial. They feel good about it.”

This time of year, Pugni’s shop smells like a forest, as his son, Joe Pugni III, and a crew of workers toil in the basement, assembling grave blankets from evergreen branches that arrive by the truckload.

They make quick work of it, tying the branches to a frame, adding decorated pine cones and ribbons around a heart-shaped piece of florist's foam.

More intricate custom blankets are created to the customers’ exacting standards: a nativity scene added, or just the right shade of red ribbon.

"It becomes a family tradition," Pugni says. "Sometimes, families arrange to meet here, pick up the blanket and go over to the cemetery."

Their handiwork can be seen in cemeteries stretching from The Bronx to Bergen County to Croton-on-Hudson.

A blanket for 'Daddy'

Laura Boyce and her three children — Jesse, Jillian and Brandon — of Thornwood, New York, are regular visitors to the grave of James W. Boyce Jr. in Gate of Heaven Cemetery.

He is Laura’s husband and her children’s father. Friends called him Jimmy. To his family, he is forever “Daddy.”

They were there on Father’s Day. And Laura and Jillian were there, with Laura’s sister, Christine, last week, to mark the sixth anniversary of his death at age 50.

They came to replace items that were lost or damaged when Gate of Heaven workers placed someone in an adjoining plot. When Pugni, of Grayrock, learned of the incident, he told the Boyces he’d replace what he could, even though the fault lay with the cemetery.

When they arrived at Grayrock last week, Pugni had something else to offer them, something the family hadn’t seen before: A grave blanket.

The three women thanked the florist for his kindness, took the blanket and made their way to the gravesite.

They found it still adorned with a welder’s mask, a tiny plastic green frog, a Father’s Day card and antlers, an homage to the avid hunter. Laura tugged at the remains of flowers and fussed over the display before Jillian placed the evergreen mat on the grave.

“It means a lot to me and my family, because it's such a beautiful wreath and a blanket,” Jillian, 18, said. “It reminds me of the old times when he was here and I used to tuck him in and pull his socks up when he was sick. It makes me feel like he's safe and warm.”

Blanket coverage

In a way, Deborah Santangelo was pulled into the grave-blanket business because the popular tradition was costing her money.

Santangelo is president of George Washington Memorial Park, the final resting place for more than 147,000 on 110 acres in Paramus, New Jersey. 

“That’s 110 acres of people putting out grave blankets and wreaths that we have to dispose of at our expense,” she says. “We have to have a full crew.”

A dozen years ago, Santangelo hired a garden center veteran to create two sizes of grave blankets for sale. He now leads a team, toiling in the barn on the park's grounds, getting ready for the season, with greens that Santangelo orders from a Canadian supplier well before Memorial Day. Grave blankets have become a yearlong part of her job.

George Washington sells two styles of wreaths ($50 and $55) and two sizes of grave blankets ($65 and $75).

“We sell thousands," she says. "It's helping us pay for the disposal of everybody else's wreaths and blankets."

The park charges no maintenance fee, she points out.

The season brings so many visitors that Santangelo's office is open on Sundays, from the Sunday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday before Christmas, to help families find gravesites upon which to place wreaths or blankets.

The big crush comes the Monday after Thanksgiving, she says.

"That Monday, first thing in the morning, every florist in the area pulls up and dumps thousands of wreaths here, and they want them placed that day," she says, smiling. "We still have funerals going on, but our crews do their best to get them up as soon as we can."

The blankets and wreaths stay up through January when, weather permitting, the crews can begin the process of removing them. Sometimes, the ground is so frozen that crews are chipping them away in late spring to make room for Easter Palm crosses, Santangelo says.

Room for innovation

Grave blankets are easily placed, laid on the grave and staked to the ground to keep them from blowing away.

Mausoleums pose another challenge, one that Michael Godleski managed to master.

The granite mausoleums can handle a wreath or a small floral arrangement, but nothing as elaborate as an evergreen grave blanket.

Nearly 25 years ago, Godleski, the co-owner of Skie's Garden Center, just down Paramus Road from George Washington Memorial Park, came up with what he calls a "rectangular wreath," which can be hung on a mausoleum "shutter," permitting the name of the deceased to show through, a sort of evergreen frame.

Now, he and his family create hundreds of them by hand each season, custom-made and designed to fit the George Washington mausoleum walls.

To protect the granite from being scratched, each rectangular wreath is double-sided in evergreens and can also include personal mementos or keepsakes, which can be returned to the family when the wreath is removed in February.

They are labor-intensive, beginning with a Canadian lath that is cut to size and glued and nailed together at Skie's (pronounced "skees.") The frame is then covered on both sides with Canadian balsam greens. 

Then, the team at Skie's looks for inspiration from the words families use to describe the feeling they want to convey.

"If they say 'golden, glitzy,' we know what they want," says Michael's wife, Patti. "If they say 'plaid natural,' we go a different way."

They have repeat customers, some of whom place orders from Arizona and ask for a photo of the wreath in place.

One repeat customer buys a rectangular wreath every year to honor their firefighter family member, who served on Truck 1, Engine 2. His wreath reflects that.

All of that custom work creates a one-of-a-kind item that costs $159, plus tax and delivery.

Email: pkramer@lohud.com