Pay someone to decorate your tree?

[buttmunch]

By Mindy Fetterman, USA TODAY


Here's the latest holiday fantasy.

You make a list of people you have to shop for and what you want to spend — and hand it to someone else.

You pick a date for a holiday party and list those you want to invite — and hand it to someone else.

You sketch your house covered in lights, with maybe an inflatable Santa or an 18th-century "village" in the front yard — and hand it to someone else.

You go on a shopping website and fill in your list and some personality details of the people you're shopping for, type in your credit card number, hit send and the gifts get sent out.

Your "to-do" list becomes someone else's "to-do" list.

In these days of concierge, catering and home-decorating services, you can plan an elaborate holiday for friends and family — and let someone else do the work. You can enjoy a totally hands-off holiday.

That is, if you have the money — from $150 an hour to have your tree trimmed to up to $50,000 to emblazon your home with tens of thousands of lights.

The idea of letting someone else do holiday planning has been catching on in the past decade as more people have decided they don't have time to do it themselves, says Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, which studies luxury retail trends.

"What separates the rich from everybody else is their ability to hire people to deal with the day-to-day stuff of life," Danziger says. "The rest of us can buy things, but they can buy services."

But the rise in time-starved two-income families has pushed the use of such services down the income chain, to folks who hire a restaurant to cook food and drop it off, or a company to hang lights on the roof.

That's meant a boom for businesses that provide those services. Revenue for the catering and party-planning industry will hit about $19 billion in 2005, according to the National Association of Catering Executives, making it the second-fastest-growing part of the food industry, after restaurants. Americans will spend $8 billion this holiday season on decorations, Danziger says.

"People are so wrapped up with work already," says Norma Barajas, owner of Texas Mexican Restaurant & Catering in Sacramento. "But they want to enjoy the season, and they want to come to the party" — not do the work to throw a party.

As a result, more people are hiring out everything about Christmas, says Sara-ann Kasner of the National Concierge Association. "The popularity of concierge services has grown from the image of a privilege for the wealthy to the everyday needs of moms and dads in the workplace," she says.

It'll look like you did it

If you want to have someone else handle your holiday party, you can throw as modest or as elaborate a party as you wish and can afford.

"I've done parties as simple as $5,000 for a sit-down dinner with a cook on-site to the-sky's-the-limit — $100,000 — for a holiday party," says Kasner, who runs a concierge service for corporate offices in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. "We'll handle everything. The hostess has really done nothing."

You can go downscale and pick up prepared food from your grocery or, for more money, use "drop-off" services of restaurants, caterers and even some hotel chains. They'll deliver the food in aluminum containers to your front door.

"We do a lot of that for customers," says Darryl Settles, owner of Bob's Southern Bistro in Boston, which specializes in Cajun and Southern cooking. "Our stuff lends itself to volume cooking."

At the other end of the food chain, you can hire a chef to cook in your home, with waiters or waitresses, china, linens and silverware. Or you can have the caterer put the food in your dishes so everyone thinks you've cooked it.

If you insist on cooking

There's even a trend in which the caterer brings all the ingredients for your menu, chosen and chopped, and you actually do the cooking. For busy working families, though, that might be too much work.

"You want it to appear like you've done it when you haven't done it," says Gary Abeyta, publisher of CateringMagazine.

About 8,300 companies are individually owned firms that do "off-site" catering for homes or businesses, says Kerry Stackpole, executive director of the National Association of Catering Executives. A total of 80,000 companies are in the catering business in some way, from huge corporate caterers to hotels and food-service firms.

Industry revenue has rebounded dramatically from the slump after 9/11. "We've seen tremendous growth in the number of families who have meals prepared and delivered regularly," Stackpole says.

Christmas Decor of Lubbock, Texas, has grown from seven franchises in 1996 to 375 locations in 48 states this year. A former lawn-maintenance firm, it now has annual revenue of $50 million and serves 40,000 customers. Its services range from simple lighting that costs a couple of hundred dollars to elaborate displays that can cost up to $50,000.

"We'll do the Clark Griswold thing; we have some huge displays in New York and Colorado," says Brandon Stephens of Christmas Decor. He means tens of thousands of lights, like the display Chevy Chase's character put up in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. When he threw the switch, he blew out all the lights in his neighborhood.

It's known in the business as pulling "a Griswold." (When his company does it, Stephens adds, the lights don't blow.)

The latest trend in outdoor holiday lighting is a move away from the white lights of recent years.

"Clear has been king," Stephens says. But now people are "incorporating color again" by, for example, adding a red bulb for every third white bulb. Nothing too radical.

A couple of years ago, strings of icicle lights were the rage. Last year, it was inflatable yard decorations, such as big fat Santas and snowmen. "But that's the only thing that's new this year, and it isn't new," says Danziger of Unity Marketing. The lack of new pizazz in outdoor decorations means sales won't rise much this year, she says.

That hasn't kept people such as Michael Yang of East Setauket, N.Y., from spending more than $10,000 to have North Shore Christmas Decor decorate the outside of his home on Long Island. He and his family just emigrated from Taiwan.

"This is my first time to have Christmas like this," he says. "I hope to decorate my house for my family, because even though we have had Christmas, it's not a Western Christmas; it's an Asian Christmas."

Does he think his children will be surprised? "I hope so."

You can hire an 'elf'

Not everyone wants a cocktail party with carved ice sculptures or chocolate "fountains" to dip strawberries in, while valets park the BMWs on your neighbor's lawn.

A lot of people are like Diane and John Fallon of Orangeburg, N.Y. They hired Anne McGovern of All Around Town Concierge & Errand Service to decorate their home for the holidays this year, including the tree, the banister and the dining room tabletop. That's because John broke his heel after Halloween, just as he was moving his business, and Diane works part time. The couple have three children.

"I was getting very overwhelmed," Diane says. "Everything was falling on me to do." So she hired the concierge firm after she saw its fliers at her kids' school.

McGovern and a friend, Ginny Hanley, started the firm in September. They charge about $150 an hour to run errands, do shopping and gift wrap, mail Christmas cards, pick up dry cleaning, do grocery shopping and decorate homes around Bergen County, N.J., and Rockland County, N.Y., near New York City.

And they're completely booked for the holidays,

The personal-shopping trend has grown since the late 1980s, when department stores started offering personal shoppers for their clients. Now, there are thousands of local services such as McGovern's that will do any errands for anyone. The holiday-for-hire industry is busy in the offseason, too. Outdoor lighting contractors do lawn work. Caterers handle weddings and other events. And concierge services work year-round running errands.

Getting help online

And, of course, personal shopping has grown on the Internet, too. Revenue from shopping online for the holidays is expected to hit $19.4 billion, according to analyst Jeffrey Grau at eMarketer, a retail research firm. While that's a small slice of total retail sales in November and December, estimated to be $439.5 billion, sales online are rising sharply, up 22% from last year.

You can go beyond surfing the Web during work hours to find your holiday gifts. Laura Silsby, CEO of the Personal Shopper website, has taken online shopping one step further. You log on, fill out your gift list, provide some personal details and preferences of the folks you're shopping for — the books they like, their hobbies, etc. — and the software searches millions of products on thousands of websites.

Personal Shopper comes up with several ideas. You check the list, pick what you like and connect to the retailer, fill in your credit card number and hit send. The gifts are set for delivery. Then you log off.

"Everyone wants to find that perfect gift, but there are so many demands on our time," says Silsby, whose company is based in Boise. "This takes the stress out of holiday shopping because you don't have to go on that time-consuming quest through crowded stores."

The appeal of personal shoppers, in person or online, is universal — especially for working mothers, says McGovern, who for six months researched what kind of business to start before she opened All Around Town.

As the mother of three children and a former party and event planner for Goldman Sachs in Manhattan, she realized she needed help with the daily details of life.

"Finally, it just hit me: I want someone to do for me what I don't have time to do," McGovern says.

"I need a concierge service!"

OK, the day I allow anyone, even a family member, decorate my tree, is the day I lose my mind. That baby is mine, Mine, MINE!!!

[Tenaj]

Some people just have way too much money to themselves, sure Christmas is hard work and trekking around the shops is stressful and worrying about the dinner, the cards, the decorations can make you feel like you're losing your mind but thats what its all about! After you've done it all you can appreciate your hard work, sit down, relax and get merry!

[Lil]

Decorating the tree is the one thing I wouldn't let anyone else do. I put a CD of carols from King's College on (or Slade/Wizzard/Pogues etc, depending on my mood), pour a glass of something cold and alcoholic, and enjoy every minute carefully unwrapping all the pretty glass baubles I've collected over the years. I'll be doing it on Sunday afternoon.

[sweetrebel]

My kids decorated the tree a few weekends back when I was at work. They put out the other decorations, too. I wanted so bad to move some things on the tree, but I contained myself. I told myself they went to the trouble of doing it and it was very thoughtful-leave it alone! So, it's not quite the way I would have done it, but it is still pretty!

[miss_perfect]

Originally Posted by Tenaj

Some people just have way too much money to themselves, sure Christmas is hard work and trekking around the shops is stressful and worrying about the dinner, the cards, the decorations can make you feel like you're losing your mind but thats what its all about! After you've done it all you can appreciate your hard work, sit down, relax and get merry!

I totally agree. I love the Christmas chaos. I love decorating, shopping, the whole nine yards. To me this whole concept of delegating your holiday tasks seems really tacky. If you can't make time out of your day to do these small things, one time out of the whole entire year, then sorry, your time management sucks.

[Glasgow53]

I know people who get paid to deliver Christmas trees to people's houses and set them up. My feeling is if you are too stupid/lazy to set up or decorate your own tree, you don't need to have one. (That doesn't include people who might be inform or have some other problem they physically can't do it)

[PlumbingQueen]

My boss and his wife have a beautiful home that looks like a model on the inside, and they paid someone to come in and decorate everything. The staircase, the tree, everything. The wife doesn't work, and they have two small kids. There is nothing personal at all on the tree or in the decorations. It's beautiful, but oh, so cold.

[UndercoverGator]

I can see hiring people to do a number of things, like the food or setting up the tree and greenery but the personal touches should be done by you.

[SammysMom]

I worked at a doctor's office back in 2002/2003 and the doctor hired people to decorate his house, tree, the office, buy presents for everyone on his list this includes family members and cordinate the office party. He didnt nothing and said that is how he has done it for over 25 yrs. On Christmas Eve he leaves town to go to his hunting cabin and stays there until after New Years day. No family No friends. He says its well deserved on his part since he works so hard. Give you an idea how hard he works he is in the office Mon -Thurs from 11am to 3pm and will not answer any pages Friday, Saturday or Sunday. He has given all the work over to his associate. I have to say that I got some of the nicest gifts when I worked for him. Got a $1000 Christmas bonus on top of having a complete Christmas meal prepared by a local upscale resturant. For my birthday I got a gift certificate to the local mall for $500 and two days off with pay.

[buttmunch]

Well, the doc sounds generous but still a bit fucked up in the warmth and caring department.

[sherbear905]

I'm a "Tree Decorator"

Well....I decorate a tree every year for the "Holiday Tree Festival". All proceeds go to Children's Hospital, with over 150 full sized, decorated trees selling each year.
I am amazed (and thankful) at how many people will pay to buy a fully decorated tree to put in their home. Their donation is tax deductible, but at least 50% of the trees I have decorated go directly to a private home vs. a business. Some are repeat buyers, rotating in new trees each year.
My tree sold for $1,200 this year. Previous trees have sold for as low as $300, and as high as $3,000.
(Lucky "purchasers", my own tree has ornaments that are either home made, or from the Dollar Store!)

[Laurent]

It sounds cold to have someone come in and do your tree for you and buy the presents, but damn, every year it gets more appealing. It will only take one more trip to the mall for me this year, before I completely lose my sanity.