Decorations: Bright Lights, Big Business

Elwood and Linda Johnson leaped right into a holiday tradition when they relocated a year ago from the Silicon Valley to the Santa Clarita Valley. They put up holiday lights. Hundreds and hundreds of crisp, clear lights.

But they didn’t do the work themselves. They hired a professional.

In short order, a crew of trained, uniformed workers deftly climbed a hydraulic ladder mounted on a truck and transformed the Johnson home this week into an instant wonderland.

The Johnsons are among a growing number of homeowners willing to pay hundreds--even thousands--of dollars to have their homes professionally decked out for the holidays--a fast-growing business nationwide.

A former councilman and mayor of Milpitas in the Bay Area, Elwood Johnson, 63, said that like most Americans, he strung lights himself for 30 years on his former ranch-style home.

But when he moved to the two-story view home in Stevenson Ranch, he noticed most homeowners on his cul-de-sac of upper-middle-class homes were paying more in dollars than effort for elaborate Christmas displays.

Last year, he persuaded the folks with cherry pickers to squeeze him into their schedule, paying about $125 in his initial outlay. This year, he said he doubled the number of lights, as well as the cost, to about $250.

“I’m getting older. I could break something. And this is so much easier,” he said.

Some neighborhoods become known for decades for seasonal displays created by teams of homeowners who often help one another.

“But here, you don’t even have to know each other,” Johnson said. “Everybody just does it.”

As he spoke, a neighbor rushed up to the workers, pleading that they do her house, too.

While many homeowners cherish the tradition of creating their own displays, others have grown frustrated untangling lines and replacing bulbs, or exasperated by whole strings that suddenly go dark.

With the economy thriving and expendable income growing, never before have so many homeowners willingly spent so much to have the job catered, those in the business say.

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The costs of professional holiday installations can increase with the services provided, such as taking down lights, storing them, or requiring homeowners to purchase more expensive commercial-grade strings. Some companies permit owners to use their own lights, provided they meet current electrical safety codes.

Jeff Clericuzio of Canyon Country, who has been hanging decorations for homeowners for 14 years, said his ‘Tis the Season Holiday Lighting business has mushroomed in the last few years.

“I’ve seen it greatly increase in number,” he said. “When I first started, I was doing two or three homes. Then it jumped to 60. Now I’m up to 300, and I know the competition in the Santa Clarita Valley is getting crowded. I’m just one of five or six” similar companies, he said.

Clericuzio, who operates U.S. Sign and Lighting in San Fernando the rest of the year, said he quit advertising because “I have too much to handle just by word of mouth. It grows every year and I have to turn people away.”

Even at that, he added 50 homes this year and employs a 20-man crew. He said he often decorates whole blocks, as in the Johnsons’ neighborhood, but also does commercial projects, including Valencia Town Center and a 70-foot pine for Stevenson Ranch’s community Christmas tree.

Clericuzio said the average homeowner spends $200 to $500, but more elaborate estate projects can cost as much as $10,000. His goal, however, is to expand his commercial work so that he “can make a living just on holiday decor.”

While about 80% of his business is in the Santa Clarita Valley, Clericuzio said he also has clients in Encino, Thousand Oaks, Pasadena, Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

Ric Robertson of Beverly Hills expanded his party decorating business into his RMR Holiday Lighting enterprise four seasons ago. This year, he sent out 4,000 postcards and moved a 14-foot trailer advertising his services into select neighborhoods around Los Angeles, targeting households with annual incomes of $200,000 or more.

Robertson said he already has 60 clients in affluent neighborhoods of Santa Clarita, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Malibu, La Canada Flintridge and even the Silicon Valley. He did mostly traditional homes at first but is now expanding to larger estates, he said. Clients spend an average of $800 to $2,000, but some, including a few celebrities, pay as much as $20,000.

“I specialize in unique lighting designs,” Robertson said. “We’re not just gardeners or maintenance people who come in to do the work.”

Robertson has hired a five-person marketing team and has plans to franchise his services.

How elaborate can he be? “As long as the client has [electrical] power enough, we can do it,” Robertson said.

Nationwide, the market for home holiday decorating is leaping by 30% to 35% per year, said Jim Ketchup, who converted Christmas Decor--his home holiday lighting business in Lubbock, Texas--into a national franchiser five years ago. He estimates 300 franchisees will decorate more than 35,000 homes this year, up from about 27,000 last year.

Ketchup said many of his franchisees decorate homes for as little as $200 to $300, including supplying lights, but they also provide far more extensive--and expensive--displays. The most elaborate, he said, was $24,000 paid by the owner of a 31,000-square-foot mansion in Atlanta.

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Wayne Walker, an owner of Trius Construction of Northridge and Palmdale, is in his second year as a franchisee with Christmas Decor, one of five in California. Others are in Burbank, Simi Valley, Grass Valley and Porterville.

Walker said he is decorating about 85 homes this year in Chatsworth, Woodland Hills, Northridge, Granada Hills and the Santa Clarita Valley.

Displays average about $1,500 per home, he said, adding that costs can vary widely. The price of lighting a single tree can range from $75 all the way up to $3,000--”depending on whether the client wants it lit up like the burning bush of Moses,” he said.

His largest residential job, which cost a Chatsworth homeowner $11,000, required 2 1/2 days to string about 10,000 lights.

“If you’re comparing our charges to what it would cost you to go to Kmart and purchase lights, then we’re not the people you want,” he said.

Still, like all others in the business, Walker said he can’t meet the demand for service.

Yet industry veterans warn that the apparent seasonal bonanza of the business has pitfalls, requiring astute management and knowledge to succeed. Dekra-Lite Industries of Santa Ana was a pioneer of home holiday lighting franchises more than 15 years ago, but now provides only commercial services to shopping malls, office buildings and hotels, according to the company.

Dean Nida in central Ohio launched his business as a Dekra-Lite franchise in 1988. He said in recent years he has “steered business away from residential,” instead building his services into a national commercial base. “If you don’t have at least $1,000 [to spend], we just don’t have time for you anymore,” he said.

Besides, he added: “People who have the money also feel they are the only person out there, that they are the only person you work for.

“There’s an awful lot of real snooty people, and they can be a pain.”

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* A DARK CHRISTMAS?

Gov. Davis lit the state Christmas tree, then turned it off to conserve power. A3