Azusa Firm One of Half a Dozen Holiday Decorators in L.A. County : He Decks the Malls, and More, for Christmas

The Christmas rush is on and few people are caught up in it as much as Dick Hubbard, owner of one of about half a dozen Christmas decorating firms in Los Angeles County that are working non-stop these days to spruce up Southland cities and shopping malls for the holidays.

At Hubbard’s American Decorating Co. in Azusa, about 40 employees work 12- to 14-hour days, including weekends, scurrying to more than a dozen cities from Beverly Hills to La Mirada, 30 shopping malls and numerous office buildings, adding to the holiday cheer with tinsel, garlands, 100-foot Christmas trees, as well as candy canes and artificial snowmen by the hundreds.

Technology adds to Hubbard’s holiday headaches.

With the trend toward underground utilities, Hubbard has found it increasingly difficult to find poles from which to hang his decorations. And when he does, some, like the nighttime glow of the amber, low-voltage light standards in downtown Long Beach, turn his sparkling white snowflakes a dirty orange, like everything else around them--including trees, cars, buildings and people, he said.

Deadlines Don’t Change

The things that do not change for Hubbard, however, are the critical deadlines for decorations that span one month, from Nov. 1 to the first week in December.

“If we put them up before then, it’s too early. If we put them up after, it’s too late. It’s a unique business that way,” said Hubbard, who has been involved in it for more than 30 years, since he was a teen-ager in Fresno and got a job at the decorating company across the street from where he lived. “It beat picking cotton,” he said.

During the crunch, Hubbard and his employees empty the large Azusa warehouse where hundreds of Santa Clauses and Christmas trees, thousands of light post decorations and more than a million mini-lights are stored for 11 months of the year.

Among the largest installers of Christmas decorations in Los Angeles County, Hubbard’s firm only recently began a small-scale manufacturing division. Most of his customers, after all, either lease or own their decorations and use his services to install, remove and store them, he said.

Tastes, as Always, Vary

Tastes in Christmas decorations vary. Most cities go for the traditional Santa Claus, snowmen and Christmas trees, Hubbard said. Some, however, prefer more exclusive designs. Beverly Hills, for example, has custom-made, 10-foot-high snowflakes with mini-lights lining its streets, he said.

Once the mad rush to install the decorations ends, Hubbard and his employees relax a bit, but not for long. The day after Christmas, the job of removing them begins.

Although Hubbard said he still enjoys the holiday, he admits that by February the whole family, which includes three grown children who work in the business with him, have had enough. But by then, it is time to begin planning for next Christmas, he said.