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Toys R Us Joins Sears in Bringing Early Holiday Cheer
 We mentioned in an earlier post that Sears is already setting up Christmas shops in some of its stores and online. Reuters says they aren't the only retailer getting an extremely early jump on the winter holidays, which are still several months away.
Reuters says Toys 'R' Us is bringing holiday cheer in July in the form of early discounts but there will also be candy canes and Christmas cards.
Toys R Us is planning a similar event, but with more emphasis on holiday-themed pricing of roughly 50 percent off bicycles, video games, doll houses and portable DVD players.
While the chain won't be selling holiday merchandise, it will be bringing unseasonal cheer, complete with Christmas cards and candy canes, to its stores on July 25.
"Everyone needs a little Christmas, right this very minute," the company said in a release last week.
Nordstrom will be running sales on winter apparel later this month but they told Reuters they won't be bringing out the holiday decorations just yet.
"Our customers really love the fact that we do not celebrate the holidays until the day after Thanksgiving," she said, "and we have no plans to change that."
Nordstrom's policy probably makes the most sense. If you bring out all the holiday decorations in July everyone will be tired of them well before December. Hopefully, the shopping malls will resist the temptation to bring out the holiday decorations this summer.
Photo via Flickr user emaspounder
Posted on July 18, 2009
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Real Christmas Trees Outsell Fakes But Fake Tree Sales Growing Faster
MSNBC reports that artificial tree sales surged over 80% in 2007.
In 2007, 17.4 million people bought artificial Christmas trees -- a whopping 87 percent jump from the previous year's total of 9.3 million, according to a survey conducted for the National Christmas Tree Association, whose members are farmers and retailers of real trees. Rick Dungey, a spokesman for the association, could not explain the huge jump and said it seemed to be a statistical anomaly, although the margin of error for the survey is only 3.1 percent.
While live trees are still outselling fake ones, with about 31.3 million bought last year, all signs indicate their artificial counterparts are becoming a bigger and bigger piece of the Christmas tree buying pie.
Even though artificial tree sales are growing faster they are still outsold each year by real trees. There are expected to be 25 to 30 million live trees sold this year. The National Christmas Association dispels ten myths about Christmas trees that may help those who are trying to make a decision about whether to go with a real tree or an artificial tree.
Here's a video featuring advice from P. Allen Smith about how to decorate a tree. We used to watch P. Allen Smith when he gave gardening advice on the Weather Channel. He also has some advice for making wreaths on his website. In the clip P. Allen Smith decorates trees for three different budgets: $50, $75 and $150. Take a look:
Posted on December 17, 2008
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2007 Holiday Decorating Trends
 Christmas is less than two weeks away and many homes are already fully decorated for the holidays. There are yards with tasteful snowflakes and elegant white lights. There are also those giant inflatables which get more numerous each year. Every neighborhood always has someone who overdoes it with too many lights or multiple inflatables or some awful combination of lights, inflatables and large plastic holiday figurines. Experts say white lights are more tasteful, but the those that love their colored lights refuse to give them up. That debate isn't going away any time soon. Where we draw the line is all red lights, which we see at least one home done in every year. Hello in there! Has anyone heard of the red light district? Still, maybe there's more going on in that house than Christmas festivities.
Those giant inflatables are still popular even though some homeowners find them tacky. The main manufacture of all those inflatables is Gemmy. They have greatly expanded the line from the original snow globes and Santa inflatables to include Santa riding a lawnmore, Santa chilling in a hammock and Santa driving a motorcycle. There also have a line of Disney Christmas inflatables. Perhaps they are going a little overboard. You can buy them at Amazon, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Walmart and BuyInflatables.com. Keep in mind that there is always a grinch out stealing them each and every year. What kind of creep steals someone's giant Christmas snowglobe? We'd immediately suspect the neighbors -- especially if they have tiny white lights and have been seen scowling at your giant plastic Santa in a Hammock.
Once the lights are up, most homeowners turn to the task of indoor decorations. Each year the decorating trends change and what's in this year may not be the same as what was in last year. The good news is that not all designers agree on what's in. Just because you read an article that says your memory tree is "out" this year, doesn't mean it is (as much as we wish that it was). It's your tree. If your bliss is rhinestones, feathers and framed portraits of the casts of four seasons of Project Runway, we won't judge. Much. Especially if Tim Gunn as the place of honor as the tree topper.
Here are some highlights of the current crop of articles about holiday decor, decoration trends and lights installation:
Holiday decorations retailers and marketers are expecting a blue Christmas. The main reason is that this year there is "no trendy Christmas decoration that people absolutely must buy to add to their holiday displays."
Jo-Ann's trend manager Susan Atchison says, "This year, that would be a return to old world charm with dynamic colors like sapphire, ruby red and citrine embellished with metallics. There will also be an emphasis on patterns and textures with glitter, beads and etchings; and such icons as birds, pine cones, winter foliage and berries."
Tree trend: the hottest hues in artificial trees tend to follow fashion trends, according to Carrie Chen from Treetopia.com. For 2007, Carrie Chen says, "purple is the must-have color."
The Village News reports that fresh greenery and holiday themes are hot this season. They are discussing a natural theme as well. Even if you have an artificial tree adding real pine cones might help you with this trend.
A Shreveport Times article mentions the use of multiple trees and rich colors. The article says red and gold will remain popular this holiday season. They also quote Tom Larance - the Christmas designer for The Christmas Store at Splash - who says, "Celadon is going to be very popular this year and a rich purple has been used a lot as a highlight color."
Hiring a professional decorator is on the rise. The article says, "One reason for having the decorators come to their homes is so customers can get the most up-to-date trends without worrying about being able to recreate the look themselves."
The Columbus Dispatch noticed more silver ornaments and ornaments with unique geometric shapes in stores this year. "Trees and ornaments show off more silvers, and the glass bulbs look handmade. Table runners and tree skirts feature more geometric shapes in the fabrics, and wreaths boast floral bows and natural-looking decorative birds and fruits wired to them."
Newsday has an article about how larger mantle pieces are now preferred to numerous
small decorations.
Bling Bling Christmas: The San Bernardino Sun spies a shiny and glittery trend in this article.
Looking ahead: Trends for Christmas 2008 are difficult to predict but this page on Frankfurter Messe's Christmasworld site looks at several possible Christmas trends influenced by the cultural diversity at festivals from around the world. Style concepts include Japanese zen gardens; candy colors and pop art; baroque with a "a pinch of modern" and a more traditional Swedish style theme.
Need help installing the lights?
The experts at 1-888-Ulta-Lit are offering holiday lighting assistance by phone 7 days a week from 9am -5pm (CST) through Christmas Eve. Ulta-Lit also sells the $19.99 Light Keeper Pro, a device that helps you repair Christmas lights. Just don't call them from your roof like some people have. It isn't exactly safe to be walking around the roof while you talk on your cell phone. If you found it difficult to put up all the lights this year don't forget about the outsourcing option we discussed in this post from last year.
Photograph
Top Left: Airblown Inflatable - Santa in Hammock from Gemmy
Top Right: Purple Groove Tree from Treetropia.
Bottom Left: 2007 Seahorse Ornament from Waterford.
Bottom Right: Celeb Simon Blown Glass Ornament from Barney's.
Posted on December 13, 2007
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Homeowners Save Time By Outsourcing Holiday Decorating
More and more people are deciding it is much easier to pay someone else to put up the lights and outdoor Christmas decorations. Outsourcing some or all of the holiday decorating has become a growing trend. In some cases it may be safer as well as less burdensome -- especially for the elderly -- to have someone climb a ladder to get lights onto the roof or the tops of trees.
Specialty services will put up your lights and decorations, take them down after Christmas and store them all until next year. MSNBC.com reports that Darla D'Amato in Katy, Texas spent $2,200 for lights installation, storage and removal.
For Darla D’Amato, lightening up means letting someone else climb a ladder to hang Christmas lights on her family's new 5,600 square-foot home in Katy, Texas. She paid $2,200 for a crew of people to hang Christmas lights and later take the lights down and store them until next Christmas. She said her new house is too tall for her husband to hang the lights, but having Christmas lights is a tradition in her family.
"Just thinking about getting all the Christmas stuff down every year just gives my husband a heart attack," said D'Amato, an executive at an investment firm. "It is much more time efficient for us to hire someone who knows what they’re doing."
Those willing to spend more for a unique design can spring for a custom installation. WOAI.com reports that Brite Ideas Decorating, an Omaha-based company with franchises nationwide, provides installations starting at $1,000.
Freeman said about 3 percent of his customers spend $10,000 or more per year to spruce up their lots - one customer paid $73,000 this year for mostly custom-built pieces to display.
An LED-animated scene of three elves putting a star on a tree costs $3,900 according to the Brite Ideas Web site. Santa on a motorcycle costs $1,950. Combining displays for neighborhood bragging rights can quickly run up the price tag.
After all, it's hard keeping up with new decorations, neighborhood aesthetics and an ever-increasing holiday spirit.
"It's definitely the high end market, where people want something new and unique and they're willing to pay for it," Freeman said. "They just want to stand out."
The higher end services offer installion, removal and storage of the decorations. To find a service in your area check the local newspaper advertisements or try an online search for keywords like "holiday lights installation", "Christmas lights installation" or "holiday decorating" plus the name of your city or town. Many local interior and outdoor landscaping companies also provide holiday decorating services.
Posted on December 16, 2006
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