To think it's a little sad to pay someone to decorate your Christmas tree

[DuckyMcDuck]

and house for Christmas?

A colleague of DH's was telling everyone how they pay a company to 'Christmas' their house including buying and decorating the tree and buying and wrapping all the presents. The kids come home from school to find it's all done.

I know everyone does things differently but that would take all the fun out of it for me.

Totally worth it if they come and take them all down again.

@DuckyMcDuck

Looks like I'm in a definite minority

Scuttles off to write up a business plan

Never heard of anyone outsourcing this, how impersonal and sad

Years ago a friend of mine started a business that did this and she offered to do my tree and house for free in return for using photos of the results in her marketing materials. There is very little that I enjoy about decorating for Christmas so it was a definite yes from me.

Yes it is sad in my opinion, not that I criticise the company who do it for seeing a business opportunity.

@Bzzzzzbumblebee

Ifangyu

I thought I had figured out MN acronyms but this one has me stumped 🤔.

Yes what is ifangyu??

There is a local gift wrapper on Facebook she used to work in a department store you apparently drop your gifts to her and pick them up beautifully wrapped and bowed she has a wrapping room in her house!

I usually have an minimal aesthetic until Xmas then I’m absolutely OTT and gaudy
I like decorating the tree with lights and groaning with deccies
So no id not pay someone else to do a job I Love

Yes it would take the fun out of it for me too. But I have decorated a tree for an elderly friend of my mother's in the past.

I’m with you OP I would hate someone to do that for me. Very impersonal and I love doing that stuff all part of the build up for me.

This is my ideal job.

(I may have more than one christmas tree for precisely this reason)...

I would enjoy that, o like decorating the house! Each to their own I guess.

I'd gladly pay someone to hang the lights for me - hate that part - but love putting the ornaments on and would never outsource that.

I LOVE decorating the tree.. Mum, in her early 80’s loves it too.. Rediscovering old “ Friends “, decorations from decades ago..
We have a knitted snowman my DS bought at Nursery, made by a Mum of another child, and Snowy has been a classic.
A wooden bird from the Swinging Sixties, plus antique glass icicles I found dumped as a child in a rubbish bag with tarnished tinsel.
I love the decorations and the stories they tell.
A 1900’s glass trumpet and of course glass birds with spun glass tails. 💕🙂

Sounds like a great idea to me. I would definitely do it if I could afford to.

Your tree sounds really lovely @oakleaffy. It’s nice to have long term deccies that make a reappearance

A lot of outsourcing is the preserve of those with plenty of disposable income.Dog walkers, cleaners, gardeners, handyman, decorators, oven cleaners, car valets etc A person working 40 hours a week on NMW might have no more available hours for chores than someone working 40 hours a week on 80k, they just have less money

Well, obviously!

My husband works in an industry which deals with 'ultra high net worth' people and this is really common. Some have houses decorated that they won't even be in over the period to keep up with the Joneses. He often says that the way they live all aspects of life is incomprehensible to many 'normal' people.

I didn’t realise this was a thing. I would actually consider using this depending on the price. My house never looks very festive as I just don’t have the time or energy to decorate it properly.

Where do I get this!?

I couldn't do this, I'd hate someone in my house doing it all.

However I'd also hate to have someone clean my house for me as it might not be quite right but I've found a lot of people think this is quite strange!

Cor blimey ‘ow the uvver half live! If I had an extra £500 it’d be going on food, not some company to put up Christmas decorations

I would love this. I have been working so hard that the presents still aren't wrapped and the tree is still in its box and therefore definitely not decorated.

I would gladly pay somebody else to do it all while I carry on with the huge workload that I have!

Sounds fab. If I had a big house I'd get/pay someone to get all the decs out of the loft and later pack them away. Fabulous!

Decorating someone else's house and wrapping their gifts would be my dream job, as long as I was allowed to do it with Christmas carols playing in the background and a snowball in one hand. I love decorating. There is nothing I enjoy more than carefully wrapping a few parcels, decorating them with origami and artfully aranged bows.

However, there have been years even I would have gratefully paid a small fortune for someone to put up my tree rather than wrangling over-excited small children, tree-climbing cats and fairy lights that defy the laws of physics by managing to mysteriously tangle themselves into a knot despite being coiled neatly. I would have happily outsourced wrapping the year I had to contend with 2 bikes (for the ILs, not even the DC!), a football and an unboxed doll's house. There was much swearing and many bruises that year.

I have a wonderful woman come and do mine. She’s a florist by trade so has a great knack for decorating. She was especially pleased to have the work since her business has been shit this year.