Christmas decorations 7.5k

[Cleo888]

Hello,

I would like a honest opinion do these pricing look fair or they are taking me for a mug. I thought we would hire a Christmas decorators to decorate our home thinking it would be practical to have a company set it up and take it down.
The final pricing remains the same whether you keep the decorations for 2 weeks or 2 months. The contract will be for 2-4 years the final price is payable every year.

Staircase garlands £1100
Outside doorway garland £550
Kitchen garland for above cupboards £550
Inside lights for glass (both areas) £1700
Living room fireplace garland £275
Inside 8ft tree , fully lit and decorated £950
Drive lights for pathway£180
Icicle lights for roofline and top windows £420
Access equipment to install lights and take them down £500
Total price £6225
Plus vat @£1245

FINISHED PRICE £7470

I would ask around on Facebook in oct/nov time for local people. Someone advertises near me for huge big front door garlands and bannister ones for about £250, they set them up/take down as well. I've also seen people offer to put up outside lights for a few hundred pound.

@Bunnycat101 I'm pretty sure if OP posts on the local FB page there'll be plenty. I found a couple after a couple of mins Googling so I don't think it's hard, this thread is v light-hearted and people are taking it way too seriously!

Surely a service like this is aimed at either corporates or mega rich people with multiple houses who will be flying in on Christmas Eve and want everything ready. I don’t know why an ordinary person, even a very rich one, would even consider it.

My window cleaner puts my outside lights up every year and charges £40. I thought that was extravagent lol.

This thread is hilarious! I think, just guess-timating from own purchases, that all the supplies for those things bought from scratch and fresh (i.e. real plants) might just add up to £1k, if you didn't get trade prices for everything. Factor in 2 people for a day with a ladder and some cable ties and picture nails and the like, and you might possibly hit £1.5k as a reasonable cost for avoiding the inconvenience of doing it yourself (which still seems mad for Xmas decorations!). The £7.5k...that's wedding prices! Bonkers!

Oh my god, that’s mental! We embrace the tack at Christmas with tinsel and garlands! DH does it for free to be fair in this house but it is a small house. I’d happily lend him plus my big tree for a relatively small fee but I can guarantee no taste will be involved😂

I’d use that money and have a lovely holiday instead.
Just wack some tinsel and a Christmas tree up and be done.

Seriously?? Why ??? I'd expect something absolutely amazing for that sort of money! Like small stately home level amazing.

Are you seriously considering this? Is there nothing else you'd rather use the money for? I can't imagine anyone paying that for decorations unless they earned about £1m a year and had a house worth about £10m!

Is your name Martha May?

%3D

@dikwad

My husband just informed me that I'm overselling our friend here and you'll be disappointed.

I should re-advertise as "Tom Hardy on crack" and state he will do it for £20 and a beer.

For that price I'd be able to have the whole of my scruffy little terraced house decorated with wallpaper and paint, something I would love to do but cannot afford. As for Christmas, I buy a couple of new bits each year and enjoy the memories of some of the (very) old ones.

if you are Kris Jenner or Mariah Carey then that's a bargain price but on a normal house that's insane.
Do you keep the decorations and get a discount next year if they reuse the items?
Where are the decorations from? Mine are from
places like B&Q and Aldi but have the power of making even my cynical teens go mushy and sentimental.
I would ask on FB what local handymen charge to put up lights. Bet it's way more less than 7k 😮

It might all look a bit too matchy matchy

😂😂Yes this is clearly the main worry here!

No it’s not I have better taste in husbands!! 😂

I have sooo had too much wine tonight reading this thread...
I am in fantasy land !🎄🎋☃️⛄❄️⭐🌨️🌲

Just nearly choked laughing 😆

I didn't know christmas could get any crazier than it already is.

I get my fake tree and decorations out of a cupboard and put them up. The cost is zero. Most of the stuff is nearly 2 decades old. So my fake tree isn't even bad for the environment as it's been used so many times.

I suppose if it's handmade out of silk or whatever and you have 10 million pounds sloshing around, and royalty is coming to see you at christmas, then fine. But otherwise, wtf.

Flippin eck. They saw you coming didn't they.

If you have that kind of cash lying around for someone else to pin your tinsel up, give it to someone who needs it. Send it to the food bank where it'll do some good.

And get a grip and pin up the decs yourself.

Are the garlands, tree etc. real as opposed to plastic? Sounds like a lot of work to execute yourself and the quote mentions a cherry picker to get them up to your top floor windows (which presumably you can’t do yourself).

We live in the same world it looks like “curiosity killed the cat” this thread has gone crazy 😳

Wouldn’t pay that for Tom Hardy, now if it was Chris Hemsworth…..😍

I'll just squint! The brandy and twinkly lights should help!

I had lights put on my house roofline a few years running (big detached five bed four reception house). Bought the lights (£40) and paid the guy to put them up...£25. He needed an extra long ladder but we borrowed it off a neighbour.
The rest - are the garlands/tree real? Couldn't you buy something like this off Etsy (£140 delivered as seen, candles not included)? Yes you have to install yourself, but that's an afternoon for the fireplace, banister and kitchen? Tree will take longer, but actually depending on the quality and amount of decorations £600-1000 seems normal.
It's roof lights and equipment that seems extortionate, unless you have a huge house. Even then...

I am glad you’re enjoying it! 😜

Chris Hemsworth - now you're talking