Christmas decoration rental: a new tradition of holidays

"It was a bit of an accident, like everything else," Bob Pranga tells me about his career in decorating rich homes for the holidays. He is also known as Dr. Christmas.

He was working at Macy's in Herald Square in New York City in 1984, just after completing his studies at the university, decorating a tree on the sales floor, when Mia Farrow pbaded by and said: " I would like someone to do it at my house. " Pranga said that he would have do it, and he did – and then, the expensive Christmas decor exploded in 1986, as the American culture was heading toward an apocalypse of stupidity.

Pranga was decorated as a "survival job" until he met the Hilton. It then became a career – a bi-coastal Christmas empire, thanks to his business partner in Los Angeles, Debi Staron.

There is no "ceiling" at Christmas, he says, and his clients spend between $ 5,000 and $ 200,000 to decorate their vacations. "Sometimes it can go higher than that, but there is a point where I ask them," Really? ". At this point, it's Christmas. Your Christmas tree becomes a big jewelry stand. You literally hang jewelry on the tree. "

(Pranga can not give me examples of people who pay for these things, but says that they are not so much celebrities as "what we used to call the captains of the industry." Like Steve Jobs, says he, but not Steve Jobs.)

"My business is still dependent on the economy," he says. "It's a luxury product, not a necessity." But his company is also part of a larger and growing business.

The Christmas issue every year is, simply, how to get it. We are all allowed to look at the windows of American Eagle. We can all go to the restaurant to say "hello" to a paper Santa Claus. But it's really just watching – having? How about owning Christmas decorations that transform your home from this place where you keep your other shoes in the Hallmark movie setting, where love interests always send handwritten notes and a roommate dressed in a soft sweater give a cup of tea? How do you wake up every morning with pink cheeks and peppermint breath?

For a not insignificant number of Americans – not just celebrities, apparently – the answer is obvious: rent Christmas decorations to someone who will keep them for you in a warehouse that you will not have. never to see; install them for you, maybe while you're not even at home; then remove them when you are tired of watching them.

The services industry is the fastest growing and fastest growing sector of the US economy. That means a lot of things, like the option of having a single bottle of pinot noir delivered to your apartment at 11 pm or hiring someone to take your Instagram. pictures for the evening – and the possibility of borrowing decorations from someone who will install them in or on your home.

The Texas-based Christmas Decorating Network, one of the largest professional Christmas decoration companies, was established in 1986, primarily as an additional service related to a landscaping business. It now has 300 franchisees in the country. His website boasts that the average member of his network – made up mostly of landscapers looking for off-season work – earns over $ 200,000 a year.

In New York, the rental of decorations seems even more attractive because of our serious collective lack of storage space. I do not have the exact numbers on the scale of the decoration rental here, but I will say that it was very difficult to get in touch with people who build Christmas to win their life, as we are almost in December and that I have been incredibly rude to try to occupy even a small part of their time with questions.

I will not say which local decorators hung up on me or said, "Are we done? In the end, I was able to spend a whole weekend watching borrow and build Christmas in New York. I do not know how it happened – probably magical.

---

Rent-A-Christmas, Manhattan

"I'm getting glitter on your baby," Rent-a-Christmas founder Kristen Parness said, handing a glitter-covered baby to her mother.

New parents Byron and Karen Hagan hired Parness to install a fake 6-foot tree in the lounge area of ​​their apartment at the luxury Riverwalk Point rental complex on Roosevelt Island in New York. They know Parness because she got her Masters in Theater from Byron at Pace University. This is the third year she shows up at home in Elven costume with two elf badistants to prepare their Christmas tree. When Parness does not do that, she is a professor of English and theater at the highly competitive Bronx High School of Science.

Parness organizes Rent-a-Christmas with her husband Judah, who holds a day job as a sales professional. "We had this idea a year when we lived in Bay Ridge [a neighborhood in Brooklyn]we had just started going out, we had no decoration, and no storage space, "she says. "We went to Home Depot and bought $ 500 worth of decorations. The house was beautiful, but we thought, "What are we going to do with that? It's so crazy that it would be great if we could rent this equipment. "

This year, they will serve about 40 customers with the help of a dozen or so part-time elves before closing shop on December 23rd. The business is small but legitimate – thanks to research and trial and error, Parness has chosen two interior decorating suppliers who supply the vast majority of its products, even though it still buys items in Target or at the bodega.

This year, she turned to a firefighter for more complex lighting and an electrician to burn no restaurant. She has a warehouse in the Bronx, where she also met with her live tree vendor and which is the unofficial seat of the operation. The elves put together garlands, garlands and complicated decorations, in big coats, because the heat does not really work.

"It's not just the rich people," she told me, when I ask who the customers are. "It's so common. We have people with one bedroom apartments or who are really busy or who have a baby. And then, yes, there are obviously rich people who do everything they can.

The price of Rent-a-Christmas services ranges from $ 185 for a single crown with lights (and its installation!) To $ 12,000 for complex packages in which an entire apartment is covered with garland. They also decorate restaurants, bars, lounges, banks, bagel shops and law firms, starting at $ 15,000.

Most residential customers spend between $ 500 and $ 5,000. According to Mr. Parness, the most popular purchase is the "Feels Like Home" tree ($ 499), which includes the rental of a 6.5-foot artificial tree, lights, a tree skirt , garlands, and a star, as well as a team of elves to set it up.

That's what the Hagans ordered. Parness's badistants for this particular job are her elf-chef Jingle Bell – also known as Sarah King, an actress who lives mainly of her life as a princess on behalf of Disney – and the new female employee of the company. interim Cara Weissman, who usually works as a casting. director of reality TV shows on TLC and MTV, but needed additional funding this year.

They both wear full leprechaun costumes, sequined ballerinas and, in Sarah's case, a shiny silver banana bag covered in make-up for the stage. Most of Parness's hair is dyed in Christmas red. They sing while they work, and it takes about two and a half minutes for the tree to move from the crate to standing, five minutes for Sarah and Cara to cover it with gold foil, and another ten minutes for that the entire team puts about 50 generic drugs. red, green, blue, purple and golden ornaments.

The Hagan watch the Hallmark Channel and drink red wine, talking with Parness about his plans for the holidays and Josh Groban's concert, which Karen will be attending tonight. The tree barely inserts into the corner of a small living room that looks directly onto a basketball court – where teens sag in five or six sweatshirts each – and then in the East River.

There is a moment when the light comes on and "The Christmas Waltz" plays on Sarah's portable speaker, and the kids outside move very slowly and awkwardly … it's really good. The baby's grandparents also want to look at the eyes and say, "This is your first Christmas tree!" While someone puts it up, but it's my cross to wear.

When she's finished her job, Sarah stops where I'm trying to get away from the TV and the TV channel and tells me that she really likes to dress up as an elf. Kids love it, and adults too, especially when they have a difficult year.

Last year, a first client in Manhattan called them because her son had just died and she could not bring herself to release the decorations. Divorced people sometimes find that their ex-partner has taken away the children and the ornaments. "You have no idea of ​​the joy you are going to bring," she says, "or how bad someone's vacation would be."

I ask her if she is going to build an elf career, maybe transfer her to her own company in one way or another. "I love Christmas," she says. It may be too much. "We come in and out of Hagans' home in half an hour.

---

Holiday House, Queens

House of Holiday is the largest Christmas store in New York, says owner Larry Gurino by phone. This is Ozone Park – the neighborhood of Queens, better known as the favorite place of John Gotti. It is also a little known as one of the real scenery of Jack Kerouac On the road – next to Tastykake Wonder Bakery, which can be closed or not but still features a giant mural of a small hostess cake. When it's not Christmas season, House of Holiday sells Halloween decorations. And when it's not Halloween, he sells pianos at a reduced price.

"We are the largest area. We have great exhibitions. Our store is beautiful, "says Gurino. "Get on the train, get off and take pictures for your article."

Me too. The shop is magnificent. I do not think I've ever fainted in front of a commercial venture, but it's the most accurate wording I can think of to describe the first glimpse of my House of Holiday experience.

There is a section dedicated to Christmas-themed trains and miniature villages, one of which is equipped with a large wheel in working order. There is a whole hall dedicated to fake trees, all of which are equipped with different styles of lights, ranging from small, bright white spots to heavy, old-school, colorful bulbs the size of an overripe grape.

There are sticky and beautiful things, Budweiser ornaments and buckets of gold poinsettias. There is an entire room dedicated to different styles of super thin elves, measuring 3 feet tall, which is a horrible nightmare. There are also displays of tea towels saying "Dear Santa, I want a big wallet and a slim body" and "The tree is not the only thing to be lit." These articles are easy to ignore in favor of 'An arrangement of huge angels with fluorescent wingtips and dresses more beautiful than any wedding dress that I can imagine owning.

I ask Gurino how long it took to find suppliers to fill his store, and he simply points out that House of Holiday has been open for 25 years.

The decorators of House of Holiday are complete for the season, which begins at night on Halloween. The 25-person team will have decorated (or decorated) approximately 200 houses and 200 businesses in the five boroughs by Christmas Eve. Typically, residential customers order a 7-foot (7.5-foot) tree "decorated where you go," wow when you enter ", as well as garlands for their railings, some wreaths and a centerpiece. They spend between $ 1,000 and $ 5,000.

Gurino remarked that my story is troubled: "The DIY is exploding. Even big buildings and businesses are starting to retreat a little [against rentals]. They enter and buy all their own products, and then they are entrusted with maintenance. "

In this way, they get the same decorations at a fraction of the price. I ask him if it bothers him, and he says no, "We encourage DIY because we have the … the biggest … Christmas store. "D & # 39; agreement!

According to Gurino, these customers have discovered a con. "Most guys will not tell you that because they just decorate. They do not have retail space. Most will tell you that it's fashionable, it's the hottest thing, but if they give you a quote for $ 5,000, you can come to my store and do it for 2. It's a great difference. If you need a crane, maybe [hiring a decorator and renting] is the way to do it … "

Most people do not rent Christmas, he says. Most people invest in Christmas and accumulate them over time. "We do not rent. It's just taking money from people. We do not think it's right. Everyone can afford a storage unit. Once you rent products to someone, they have always exceeded you. You must rent new equipment each year. Once you buy it, you have the same budget next year. So you have the double and, before you realize it, you can make a beautiful scene. "

The data seems to support most of this. According to the National Retail Federation, people spend more than ever on Christmas – an average of $ 1,007.24 each – but they still spend only about $ 215 of this total on items other than gifts, such as food and decorations. (I do not quite agree that "everyone" can afford a storage unit, but it does not seem worth fighting at Christmas.)

More than anything, Gurino hates everyone being too busy. "It's still time to enjoy the season," he says. "Make time because it's important. In the end, that's what we have. We have the seasons and the holidays.

At the House of Holiday, whose price is incredibly reasonable, I am paralyzed by indecision. Should I try to decorate my house? I agree, the season is important because what are we going to do next, cry until spring?

I also have nowhere to store these beautiful things, and I want a tree bigger than my body, but I do not think I can integrate it in my living room, where an inoperative piano occupies 30% of the floor space.

After an hour going round in circles, alternating to add elements to my story on Instagram and solemnly look at the area of ​​the nativity, where you can look, not serious, the face of God, I decided for a little owl with straw and glittering feathers ($ 5.99), to put next to a fake raven that I had bought from Target when I was in a bad mood. And a santa sleigh ($ 14.99) to put in my front window. For kids!

I ask Larry if he can tell me about the best Christmas decorations he has ever created. "I do not have anything special," he says. "Everything is special." And then, "Have we finished?"

---

Christmas decorators, Staten Island

In Staten Island, the best known friends of the Christmas decorating industry are Vincent Nicastro and Dexter Calimquim, high school clbadmates who lit up the round mansions and salt box cottages of the "forgotten" village. suburban and more and more expensive. for more than a decade.

Nicastro started the business at the age of 16, in his second year of high school at Park Slope, and landed 10 jobs in his first year with leafleting. He did them on weekends or after school. now he works 12 hours a day without a day off for the whole season.

I meet them after dark to find a job in a house nestled between two cemeteries and a country club on the east side of the island, where house prices are hovering around $ 2 million. They make a modest installation – only $ 1,500 for the labor, using lights that the owners bought them a few years ago.

Nicastro leads me to a project they have just completed, for about $ 8,500, including the light rental, but not the 6-foot-tall nutcracker on the stoop or inflatable teddy bear 8 feet located near the private basketball court. These, the owner, Jennifer Bock, have recovered, just as she herself with the size elves of a teenager in the side yard and santa claus the size of Santa Claus in the summer. driveway.

He must ask him if a timer has stopped working on the bear. He then rings the bell and she immediately opens the door. A burst of aroma reminiscent of a Vanilla Glade plug-in slaps the icy air around us and I try not to stare at the chandelier behind it, the size of a Toyota Corolla and suspended cathedral ceiling with painted cherubs. he. "We love Vinny," says Bock, "I found it on Ironmine [Drive]I pbaded and told you that you had to come and help me.

She comes to show him where she would like to have additional garlands, then goes outside and discusses without a jacket. "He's doing an amazing job," she tells me. "And I love Dexter. He really knows his stuff. "

This badessment seems, from all available evidence, accurate. His house looks like that of an advertisement from Tom Ford. Diane Keaton would live in a film about how she had made millions of dollars writing a series of bestselling books and at the same time raising smart, educated children. (Jennifer Bock's husband is not dead, I met him and his name is Tom.) It seems that if you lived there, you would just stay in the driveway and talk to unknown.

Christmas decorators make about 175 homes in five weeks. There are two vans and a truck, teams of roofers eager to work out of season and, as a bonus, not to fall from the roof. According to Calimquim, the only training they need is a few simple electrical tricks, because customers are really upset only when their fuse box jumps. A house like Bock's will take all day, at least nine hours.

"I like that," said Nicastro. "Many landscapers, businesses come and go. We are still seeing 20% ​​growth every year. He goes on to explain that for the Bocks house, they had to stick each light bulb on the roof with a silicone gun, individually, and revise his lukewarm enthusiasm. "It's 40 days of torture," he says. But on the other hand, "it's okay."

Calimquim and Nicastro are also co-owners of a Halloween store located in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which is open from August to February. There was a second store in Princeton for a while, but Amazon ate too much sales. The team decided to take part of its online business and sell it on the platform as a costume wholesaler.

"I'm shipping blood to Alaska, gallons of fake blood," Calimquim says. "A dragon in Puerto Rico". The costume industry is open year-round and is not limited to Halloween. They sell Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin costumes to schools for plays, costumes of Jesus and Moses to churches.

In February – the coldest month of the year, Calimquim reminds me – they will work from 7 am to 5 pm to decorate about 10 houses a day. He prefers to work in the Halloween store mainly because it is inside.

There are advantages to being outside, however. He likes going out with the crew. he likes fresh air. He does not like having to pick up a van in a Dunkin 'Donuts to go to the bathroom. He enjoys the holiday business because he has time to travel and travels to the Philippines as soon as it's all over. He also hates Christmas, he says, as McDonald's employees hate fries.

"Sometimes I say to myself, 'Is this what we do for the rest of our lives? "He said. It's more of a sincere badumption than anything that looks like a complaint.

---

Bob Pranga, of Dr. Christmas, makes a good living. He noticed an increase in the demand for decorating services as people "come back in the category" Nobody has time for anything "." They forget more and more to plan, so that's why he was called to give up his own Christmas Eve. to decorate the house of someone else.

"I did it," he says, "for an extra cost. You must be willing to sacrifice your vacation for this career if you really want to get there. "

Even in the most glamorous segment of this market, where customers are Stevie Nicks and Beyoncé, there's a little reminder: this is the six-week period during which our The feelings about the time that matters most and the monumental amount that can be bought for the rest of people's time are expressed a little louder and ruder than the rest of the year.

I know that there are a lot of cultural and emotional suspicions around Christmas that make what I'm about to say unresponsive to the sound or delusional: I totally love Christmas, and both need the "magic" of the most beautiful time of the year.

I know that Christmas, as popular culture defines it, is a nightmare of commercialism, a terrifying propaganda tool of the Gospel right and a really unfortunate moment to work in any service industry – a combination of heart-warming things.

At the same time, I think winter is a heartbreaking experience that humans are still struggling to cope with and that we deserve to have an elaborate charade to immerse ourselves in this and in the blinding horror of a year again. We chose something with an irresistible aesthetic and a wonderful smell, and we could have done a lot worse. The people who build Christmas are at least pretty inside. They are fine.

"My philosophy is always, you know, just remember to shine," said Pranga laughing. "Glitter takes you everywhere."

Want more stories from The Goods by Vox? Sign up for our newsletter here.