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Lots of great business start by accident, just as ours did. Sarah & Nick Bolton first ventured into Christmas decorating when trying to attract customers into their bar and restaurant high up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. When they discovered it worked they set about setting up a Christmas decorating business. Since it didn’t have a name it was Christened with what customers would ask when calling “Is that the Christmas Decorators?”
With Sarah and Nick’s son reaching the age of legally attending school, the decision was made to return to the UK leaving Aspen behind them. After posting flyers around their local neighbourhood in Liverpool and a feature on the BBC, the business took off.
We started to gain attention within our industry when we started to attract clients such as Claridges of Mayfair as well as some people in the public eye like Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne and Wayne Rooney.
Physically destroyed from travelling the length and breadth on the UK from one day to the next and drinking unhealthy amounts of Red Bull, we decided to franchise the business as our strategy for future growth. This process of launching as a franchised business took a huge investment and most of 2007
Until now we had bought in lighting and decorations from UK based wholesalers. We were now reaching a point where it made sense to manufacture our own products, so we made our first trip to China and subsequently brought in several containers fn lights, Christmas trees, garlands and decorations.
The biggest TV show at the time was The X-Factor and we were delighted when their production company contacted us for their decorations. At Christmas 2009 we had opened 6 franchised offices around the UK. 4 full time employees including Sarah & Nick
This year was a big turning point where several large clients helped us meet our £1m turnover milestone. One of these clients was McArthur Glen who asked us to decorate several shopping centres throughout Europe.
We opened a Christmas shop in our home town of Liverpool as well as an online webstore so that we could reach the whole of the UK, selling items to people who didn’t have the budget for the full installation service. Sometimes we can receive some pretty astounding inbound enquiries, but when the receptionist told us that “Bethlehem” was on the phone, we thought it was a prank. It wasn’t and after an initial trip to assess the project we became the first, and to this day, the only western Christmas Company that has ever decorated Manger Square in Bethlehem, a business relationship we are incredibly proud of.
It was a huge accolade when the wife of a soldier serving in Afghanistan asked us if we could help make Christmas special for the troops. We immediately set about making this happen which was televised on both the BBC and ITV. Word had reached the media about Bethlehem and the BBC made a mini series called “Baubles to Bethlehem” over a one week period, that aired at the end of November
We now had 20 UK based franchisees. While our team were halfway through decorating a mansion in Aspen, Colorado we discovered that it was the home of Steven Spielberg. A real pinch yourself moment!
In April we were contacted by the town of Liscard that had just been voted as having the worst decorations in the UK. As a courtesy we decorated the entire town centre at the end of April as a fund raiser which saw crowds of 2000 people turn out to make donations, leading to Liscard being one of the best decorated towns in the UK in Christmas 2014.
Business had grown to the point where we needed new premises, so at the same time set up the biggest Christmas showroom in UK. While walking past The Ritz in London, we popped our heads in to say hello and that Christmas ended up decorating it.
We were invited to pitch to Harrods and also set about doing a sample evening whereby we decorated a small section of the store after closing time. They loved it and we loved the team at Harrods. The rest is history! Another amazing high profile client we are delighted to call friends.
Lots was going on due to the amount of showroom visitors who could see how amazing our business was. We won two national contracts for Boots and o2 mobile phone stores, on the fact that with our franchise network we were/are the only Christmas Company that can facilitate a mass UK wide roll out over a very short space of time. We also decorated for King and Queen at their residences, Highgrove and Clarence House. We were also challenged with floating a 35ft tall Christmas tree on the River Thames, which we pulled off with out it sinking!
We were finalists in the British Franchise Associations annual awards for best UK Franchise. Whist we didn’t win, to be in the top 3 out of 900 UK franchise brands was pretty amazing. We spent much of 2018 being followed by a camera crew who made fly on the wall documentary about us called “The World’s Greatest Christmas Lights”. This was aired in December and was a massive success. 2019 As we approached 40 UK franchisees, we decided to fulfil the ambition of launching a franchise network in the USA, where we had started. This is a complex task but we successfully launched the US business at the end of 2019 ready to recruit franchisees through 2020.
As we approached 40 UK franchisees, we decided to fulfil the ambition of launching a franchise network in the USA, where we had started. This is a complex task but we successfully launched the US business at the end of 2019 ready to recruit franchisees through 2020.
Covid! The American launch stopped in its tracks. Bars, restaurants and hotels cancelled Christmas at a rate of tens of thousands of pounds a day. We rolled out a giant illuminated NHS sign that travelled across the UK, from hospital to hospital, just to say our thanks. We offered “Operation Save Christmas” to the shopping centre industry whereby Christmas 2020 was free of charge to anyone who was struggling.
We made it out of Covid a little battered and bruised but thankfully still in business. We joined Trustpilot to be able to show our potential clients that we are excellent and not afraid of public putting ourselves out there for review. Talking of putting our selves out there, we made our second fly on the wall called “Deck the Halls” which surpassed the previous with over 3million viewers. Its still on Chanel 4 catch up.
We became a “zero carbon” company and also offered all our clients the opportunity to nett zero their carbon emissions from all installations we offered them. We reached £10m in annual sales making us the biggest UK Christmas Company.
Working with Netflix on UK version of USA hit show “The great Christmas light fight” So far, the showroom has been visited by a record number of potential new clients.
We are the only Christmas decorating company in the UK that can offer national coverage managed by a dedicated local offices.
Contact your local Christmas decorator today to find out how we can make your Christmas special this year.
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