Decking the walls of Lane Gallery at Honolulu Hale, the 63 wreaths entered in the city’s 31st Annual Holiday Wreath Contest are full of personality: Faces of all kinds, from schoolchildren to yellow-eyed Grinches, smile out from among the baubles and boughs.

“The theme of this year’s contest was ‘Kalikimaka Kaiaulu,’ or ‘Neighborhood Christmas,’” said E. Tory Laitila, registrar at the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts. “We chose the neighborhood theme because we hadn’t done it before and it allowed for multiple interpretations.”

They included many charming, exuberant portraits of habitats and inhabitants, human and not. A tiny, tufty Hawaiian pueo, or owl, stares from the orange center of a yellow hibiscus in “Kaiaulu Ohana,” by Wendy Kamai of Pearl City, winner of the Mayor’s Holly Award for best-in-show wreath. Suspended from the flower are other endemic birds — honeycreeper, elepaio, nene, alala — all, like the flower, expertly needle-felted in wool.

In “No Worries Lane,” by CMU2, Case Management Unit 2 of the state Department of Health developmental disabilities division, a circle of urban towers surrounds stick people wrapped in bright yarn, “like those Guatemalan worry dolls,” Laitila said.

Criteria for judging were workmanship, creativity and use of materials, all of which are fully realized in the spare, elegant yet flamboyant white paper flowers cut and shaped by Jan Patinio of Wahiawa. Taking on subtle blues and lavenders as the daylight changed, it won first place in the Adult Wreath category.

Also in the adult category, two wreaths using recycled materials — “Have a Fun Day on Sunday,” by Marian Bernal of Honolulu, a dense circle of rosettes made from Sunday comics, placed second; and “Merriest Catch,” by Georgia Raff of Kaneohe, made with shells, nets and hooks beach-combed from Kaena Point to Kualoa — placed third; an opulent cluster of dried flowers, “Hawaiian Holiday Harvest,” gathered by Patti Johnson of Waipahu, won a Judges’ Choice award.

Creativity explodes in “Our Town,” by Extended Day Grade 1 of Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, which won first place in the Youth Wreath category: an island of colored paper and cut-out felt fabric shapes crowned by an erupting volcano and rainbows above a green aina with yarn coconut trees and a blue kai with fishes, a monk seal and a great red shark.

The variety and joy expressed in this outstanding show, on view from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily through Jan. 2, will make happy dreamers of all who see it.