On the grounds of the Erie County Correctional Facility, inmates are snipping and crimping a holiday staple.

"Your handmade special wreaths," Mike Dlugokinski, an inmate at the Erie County Correctional Facility said.

It's an extension to the jail's horticultural program. Starting in August, a couple dozen inmates started growing some 100 poinsettias. Then just before Thanksgiving, they also started hand making more than 100 wreaths.

"I think we got probably another 80 or 70 to go," Dlugokinski smiled.

Dlugokinski says they do about 10 each day, but it's not about the quantity — while quality is important, it’s how these wreaths present them with an opportunity to give back.

"They go all over the county and stuff like that, so it's good to do something but it's also good to do something where it's going to be used," he said.

And even though they won't be home for the holidays, Dlugokinski says he’s learned to look at the silver lining.

"You always try to look at the positive of it, I'm out for the summer time,” Dlugokinski said. “It's all the bad weather; I don't have to deal with it."

"It keeps you occupied so you don't really think about what's going on, on the outside," Jacob Craig, an inmate at Erie County Correctional Facility, said.

Craig says the fragrance is a perk, too.

"I like the smell of Christmas," he laughed.

Another perk for these inmates: each snip, gather and finished bow is one step closer to getting a certificate once they're out.

"Noting their participation so that when they are reengaging with the community or looking for employment, they can say, ‘Yes, I was incarcerated, but while I was in jail, this is what I did,’" Thomas Diina, superintendent of Jail Management Division with the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, said.

Diina says it's about making sure these men don't walk away empty-handed.

“Just a positive experience, if you will, from their incarceration that they can use as a springboard when they re-enter the community, in the hope they can do something different than what led them to be with us in the first place,” Diina said.

The Christmas decor can be adored in government buildings, local churches and community organizations around Buffalo. Making the day of a stranger from behind bars is something these men didn't think would be possible. It's turning into life lesson — a Christmas miracle, if you will — they'll take with them after their time is served.

"Before I got here, I wasn't working a real job or making legitimate money,” Dlugokinski said. “It just goes to show, I mean sometimes I didn't think I was capable of doing that."