We love celebrating the holiday season with all of you – both in our store and across the community. All around town, you may have noticed our team busily unloading one of our trucks packed with trees, wreaths, yards of garland, and dozens of ornaments ready to welcome the season to one of our commercial partners. Here, we thought we’d share a little about the excitement and preparation that goes into decorating big for the holidays.
To Usher in the Season
This is always a bustling time of year for our team – and also an honor to help celebrate the season with so many of you across the city. As the trees take their places and the shining ornaments go up, as lights begin to twinkle, and the scent of fresh evergreen fills the air, we see the excitement it brings to you too.
This year has been a little different of course – some of our larger projects have been scaled down with so many people working safely from home. But maybe more than ever, everyone’s been anticipating the joy that comes with this beautiful time of year. At the First National tower in downtown Omaha, we decorated a gorgeous 20’ Christmas tree. Although the building is closed for now, the tree shines brightly through the window for passersby to enjoy. It’s been especially meaningful to be a part of that this year.
We Call Them Installations
Although we know it as holiday decorating, when it involves a scale of this size, we call them “installations.” What makes up a commercial installation for the Christmas season may include both interior and exterior elements such as trees, wreaths, garlands, and outdoor container designs with fresh-cut wintergreens.
This year, one of our favorite projects was welcoming Christmas to the newly renovated Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel in Omaha. In that gorgeous, Jazz Age-era hotel, we installed a 14’ exterior Christmas tree plus multiple other trees inside and fireplace mantels too.
You may have also seen our holiday installations at Nebraska Crossing, Westroads Mall, TD Ameritrade, and other places around Omaha. Head of Horticulture Ann Wickenhauser leads all aspects of these projects and says that the best part of the job for her and her team is working with all the beautiful colors – and the excitement they see in people’s faces as they work. It’s simply the best way to begin the season and get it started off right.
A Year’s Worth of Planning
The trees and ornaments appear at the start of each holiday season, but planning for such large projects begins months beforehand. While many are busy putting away the ornaments, Ann is gathering ideas for the next holiday season as all the major Christmas markets are already underway for the coming year.
Everything for a commercial installation must be special ordered – each project has its own theme and requires ornaments in larger sizes and much larger quantities than an average home would need. By August, all designs and plans are finalized, and all product ordered and shipped for the team to install at the start of the season. There’s a lot of thought, organization, and sheer physical work that makes an installation come to life, but Ann and her team love it because they get to know some of the most amazing buildings in our city. And they get to work in places the public doesn’t often get to see – like the outdoor patio located forty stories above street level at the First National Tower. It’s quite the view up there.
Spread the Holiday Cheer
We love what we do. Especially when those jobs include hauling out the holly, trees, ornaments, and lights needed to welcome the Christmas season to our community. And when those efforts put a smile on your face too, it’s even better.
