Posted on 12/09/2005 5:18:39 PM PST by wjersey
It was only the first of December, but at Debbie Kennedy's Gladwyne home the lights were up, the wreaths were on the windows, and the porch was decked with garland.
Branches of fresh cedar and noble fir adorned the china cabinet, the mantel, the top of an imposing painting, and a grandfather clock. A fresh tree stood decorated with pinecones, hand-painted ceramic balls, tiny birds, and sculptural-looking bare branches.
Kennedy's secret for getting so far ahead of the holiday-decorating game? Waterloo Gardens' Christmas department, whose six-person crew spent half a day at her house.
"It would have taken me days to do this," Kennedy says, "and I would have been exhausted."
Decking the halls used to be strictly a DIY project. But a growing number of families are turning to professionals to give their homes that holiday feeling.
Though some of these services got to work last month, it's not too late to hire someone for this season, they say.
"People are hugely busy," says Susan LeBoutillier, president of Waterloo's landscaping division, which turns to Christmas endeavors this time of year.
Often, she says, the decorating is left up to the wife, "and when she is working full time and driving the kids around, it's impossible to get things done."
The company does about 100 homes, inside and out, each season. "Then, after Christmas, we come and take it all down for them," says LeBoutillier, who started building the holiday business 15 years ago at Waterloo, which has garden centers in Devon and Exton.
Interest in the decorating services, which can range from $400 to $4,000, depending on complexity, is booming, LeBoutillier says. In a single day last week, she counted more than 50 phone messages from people looking for help.
"That's unbelievable," she says.
Five years ago, Kathy and Vincent Del Vacchio, who run Del Vacchio Landscapes Inc. in Edgmont, bought a franchise from Christmas Decor, one of several companies that offer the tools to set up a holiday-decorating business. Offering yuletide services looked like a good way to keep employees on the payroll in the off-season.
This year, without advertising and with packages that begin at $1,000 (including all the lights and decorations, and post-holiday removal), they find their staff pressed to trim about 60 homes. The company does exteriors only, and has had to turn down pleas to help with the interiors as well, Kathy Del Vacchio says.
"The interest is there, but we are trying to scale down the growth so we can keep the quality," she says.
Florists also are seeing the lucrative holiday niche, offering decorating assistance from stringing lights along a roofline to trimming the family tree.
"Some of our clients will give us the key, leave for work in the morning, and when they come home, the house is done," says Lisa Roth, chief operating officer of Robertson's Flowers, which decorates close to 100 homes for the holidays.
Other clients require multiple visits. "We'll do lights on the house and reindeers on the lawn in the beginning of December," Roth says. "We'll wrap porch columns with garland and do urns for the front door, with evergreens, magnolia and branches. Then we'll go back in two weeks with a fresh tree to go inside."
Robertson's, with locations in Chestnut Hill, Wayne and Wyndmoor, doesn't object to using fake greenery if a client prefers.
"If you have your house decorated Dec. 1, you want it to look good all season," Roth says. "But it's tough for greens to stay fresh when you have the heat on. So we'll use some lush artificial garland, and maybe wire in some fresh holly to fill it out."
Florist and decorator Ralph Grasso goes the strictly artificial route for client Sallie Lavelle of Holland, Bucks County, whose home he has been decorating for Christmas for a dozen years.
"She likes everything up before Thanksgiving, so I can't use anything fresh," Grasso says of the massive project, which turns much of Lavelle's house and most of her yard into a holiday spectacle, with animatronic reindeer, polar bears on a seesaw, 7-foot-tall candy canes, tens of thousands of lights, and three lavishly decorated Christmas trees.
Lavelle, who owns a construction firm, calls Grasso "a magnificent artist." She hired him after her Christmas ambitions began to outpace her free time and her husband's skills.
"My husband and I used to fight about the lights. He'd put them up, and they'd fall down," she says. "I thought, 'We're going to get a divorce if we don't get some help.' "
Now, it takes three days to finish the house, and three helpers for Grasso, who runs Acorn & Finch in Merion Station. The decorator's lavish creations inside include a front door framed with heavy gold cording and a swag of harlequin-patterned fabric of red velvet and white chiffon. Ropes of lush garland that outline several doorways feature silk roses, sprays of glittering capiz-shell "berries," and tiny gift boxes that Grasso and his staff wrap and decorate by hand.
The gift boxes also turn up on the living room's Christmas tree, which features jewel-toned blue and lime-green ornaments.
"This tree is in transition," says Grasso, who works within a budget set by Lavelle to upgrade or change the displays each year. "It used to have Victorian porcelain dolls on it, but we're moving towards woodland fairies, dragonflies and butterflies."
For her diminutive Gladwyne cottage, Debbie Kennedy went for a more traditional look after consulting Waterloo's LeBoutillier on a decorating plan. In the windows of the sunroom, for instance, hunter-green velvet ribbon trims eight small wreaths LeBoutillier has lined up.
Hiring help gave her the time to add her own touches, including a wreath on the front wall of her garden potting shed, a centerpiece on a coffee table in the den, and whimsical wreaths around the necks of some deer and rooster statues, says Kennedy, who had the house done up before an early December holiday party. She spent about $3,000 for the service, including the greenery, ribbons and ornaments.
"I'm a really detail-oriented person, and what I really love is fine-tuning," she says. "But sometimes, when you do it yourself, you don't have time to fine-tune it."
Paying a pro to do the decorating was an extravagance, Kennedy acknowledges. "But it's my Christmas present to myself, and it's worth it.
"It frees you up, it makes for less tension, and it makes the holiday more enjoyable."
A friend of mine started his own landscaping business. As it is slow during winter months, he advertised Christmas light installation. Business is booming!
I can see spending money to have a pro put exterior lights up (especially if you're into extravaganzas like the one in the article's photo).
But doing the the interior stuff yourself is part of the fun of Christmas!
Someone taking advantage of a service-oriented economy.
Better than spending your time whining about lost manufacturing jobs.
It's a good thing you added that parenthetical clarification in your title...
Some people are dedicated to their excesses. LOL
How much for Single Wide? Double Wide?
It always amazes me how some people would rather say
"I paid for that." instead of "I did that!"
especially at Christmas time. We actually look forward to it. It just wouldn't seem the same to give up the pleasure of creating a lighting scene with my family for paying a bunch of strangers to have all the fun!
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