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

We've had income with an extra zero to what you are suggesting and no, we would never spend over £7k to do the Christmas decorating

My honest opinion? More money than sense. I am a Christmas fan.

Is cleaning the top of your kitchen cupboards before they hang the decorations included in the price? I might have a few greasy dust patches up there...

If I had that much disposable income I would do it in a heartbeat.

Our TOWN's Christmas lights cost £18K.

Absolute madness and I bet it’ll look like a department store not a home.

Wouldn't all the people who would pay this money have staff who could do it?

Giggling at the Tom Hardy comments.

30K for some Christmas decorations?! I could get a new kitchen and bathroom for that.

OP just go to B&M

From the decorators point of view it seems a fair price to cover their costs and time and make a living profit. From a personal value for money POV it seems ludicrous. I can make my house lovely in a couple of days with a £200 real tree plus my existing (expansive) collection of fairy lights and seasonal decs. Why would I spend £7000 more? Who would be thrilled or impressed by it?

What's his number?

Asking for a friend, obviously.

That was for crackhead Tom Hardy by the way.

I think I might start a Christmas house decorating business. If this is a standard quote then their mark-up is extraordinary.

When I saw that many of my neighbors were starting to use these services, I thought the prices must be fairly reasonable. I expected it to be an extravagance, but not to feel utterly wasteful.

when I checked on pricing, I found similar quotes. I don’t really care if we can afford it, I’m not paying those prices for something so trivial. I love winter holiday decorations and they are getting harder to do as I age, but I can be creative and work with my limitations.

Do you have more money than sense? How wasteful

Perhaps you could do it yourself from Balsam Hill and keep the stuff for the subsequent years which would be more cost-effective. You can easily spend over £1k on a tall pre-lit tree with them. They do very expensive large decorations as well. I see mine as an investment.
https://www.balsamhill.co.uk/c/artificial-christmas-trees

I quite fancy the flip trees for ease of set-up year after year but they are rather expensive.

Is this a thing now?

🤣🤣🤣

Oh God this has given me flashbacks. I used to work for a billionaire who had a company decorate his London home every year - it was upwards of £55k p/y and that was over ten years ago. It caused no end of grief though, with the endless back and forth about the spec, the size of the bloody trees, the colours etc.

The main attraction for those with the money is that they don't have to worry about storing all the stuff for the rest of the year, and they can change the look/theme every year. I remember one year with what was essentially a massive light-up menagerie in the gardens, give me strength.

These companies get booked up very quickly so if you do want to go for it, get it booked in soon!

I didn't even know there was such thing as "professional Christmas decorators".

Shows how poor I am 😶

That’s ridiculous unless you are talking something like shown below.

My relatives live in Texas and every year there is a sleigh type ride around the super rich neighbourhood to look at and take photos of the festive lights at the huge homes. (Child relative in photo hence the scrubbed out area)

Rather defeats the point of doing Christmas decorations. But if you live that sort of fake life, go for it!

Buy some lights. Pay a student to put them up for you. A florist would make you a wonderful topping for an adult inglenook or mantle piece with pine, Holly, and ivy. My sister and I both make our own each year and wreath for doors.

Does it? I'm playing devil's advocate here really but there's no rule that says Christmas decs all have to be home-made and hand-arranged! Surely the point (in as much as there is one) is to make your house look nice and festive and welcoming?

@dikwad For 7.5k I'd want Tom Hardy to come down my chimney dressed as Father Christmas in red velvet chaps and do me over a mince pie and brandy.

..and shag me senseless.