The Warrior Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for most of the Christmas decorations you see around city hall and the rest of the city, but the people who decorated the trees may surprise you.

Darlene and Alison, two female Warrior jail inmates (whose last names can’t be published) decorated the two trees with donated items the city and police department have collected over the years.

“The jail isn’t a lock-down kind of place,” said Warrior Magistrate Ann Crane. “It was nice that they got to use their creativity.”

The two women are known as “trustees,” inmates that are cooperative, well-behaved and aren’t considered a flight risk. She said the two women seemed happy to be able to celebrate Christmas by helping.

“They’re always cleaning and trying to do stuff for us,” said Crane.

The trees were assembled by a male inmate, then simply lit and placed in the lobbies of city hall and the police department. Crane said the idea to decorate them further came from Darlene and Alison.

“They came to me and said, ‘there’s got to be something else on it,’” she said. “Then they just went to town on it.”

The trees are decorated with toys, tinsel, stockings and other ornaments. A good-sized pile of toys lies under each tree, donated by local churches and other organizations. If a child comes into either the police station or town hall, he or she usually gest to pick a toy to take home. The trustees also got a small gift bag for helping to decorate the trees.

Crane said this was the first time, at least that she knew of, that inmates decorated the trees, but she’d like to see it become a tradition.