The Great Ideas Letter Forum

Re: renting Christmas decorations

Posted By: sandy
Date: Sunday, 10 October 2004, at 3:03 p.m.

In Response To: renting Christmas decorations (Rod Newbound)

You know what I'd like to see when it comes
to Christmas.

In line with your suggestion, wouldn't it be
neat to find Christmas light kits.

Almost a paint by number thing.

You see a picture of the type of lighting design
you'd like on your tree(for example) and then
the kit for a set price has all the bulbs, lights ornaments in the kit.

This would save a lot of time. Each year you could buy another kit for a different effect.

The other information way to do this: would be to publish a book or e/book on exactly what you need to buy to do a theme.

I have bought these type of kits for beading and crafts.

What do you think?

> Hello all,

> Thank you for providing this forum. I am a
> frequent visitor to sowpub and really enjoy
> the posts. What a great service you are
> providing.

> I just finished reading the latest issue of
> The Great Ideas Letter, where you brought up
> the idea of renting Christmas decorations to
> businesses. I think it is a viable idea and
> the decorating part itself can really pay
> off. My wife works at a plant nursery which
> turns their greenhouse into a Christmas
> theme (and of course sells thousands of
> dollars worth of ornaments, etc.) every
> year. They spend months creating theme trees
> with matching ornaments every year.

> Every year they have people approach them
> about buying their trees already decorated
> (and there is a a company which actually
> caters to that idea). The way they do it is
> they have a few standard pre-lighted
> "fake" trees from which the
> customer chooses. The customer orders from
> these and the tree is shipped directly from
> the warehouse to their home. For a 9'
> pre-lighted "flocked" fake tree
> the price is $300-$400. Some people buy even
> more expensive trees. And these trees have
> no ornaments.

> I told my wife she and her co-workers need
> to privately do decorations in addition to
> their regular job. The problem is they are
> so busy with their regular job during the
> holidays, they are just too tired to do
> more. Since most families now have two
> "breadwinners", I'm sure many
> families feel the same way. And in the
> wealthier neighborhoods there are
> extravagant Christmas parties where money is
> not an issue.

> I worked for a place for a while in Seattle
> which paid a lot of money for
> "Victorian" dressed carolers to
> come in for about 30 minutes. Just another
> angle.

> Clearly Christmas is a bigger season for
> decorating than any other, but this idea
> could easily be transposed to other holidays
> and themes. I still smile when I think about
> the story of the "off-key singing
> telegram". The idea could easily be
> enhanced with the holiday theme tee-shirts
> from a few weeks ago. Think there isn't
> money in decorating? My wife's co-worker
> just told her she spent just one day doing a
> special decorating job for a single store
> locally which paid her $3400 for the
> job(this included the cost of the
> "set"). And this wasn't even for
> Christmas.

Messages In This Thread

renting Christmas decorations
Rod Newbound -- Thursday, 7 October 2004, at 12:36 a.m.

Do it remotely
Michael Ross -- Friday, 8 October 2004, at 8:23 a.m.

Re: renting Christmas decorations
sandy -- Sunday, 10 October 2004, at 3:03 p.m.

Excellent idea!
Michael Ross -- Monday, 11 October 2004, at 8:18 a.m.