PORTLAND, Maine - The last thing John Gendron wants to do during the holidays is climb high on his steep-pitched roof to hang a wreath from his chimney. These days, he doesn't have to. Instead, he hires a contractor to put one wreath on his chimney and two others high on the house, and to hang Christmas lights on his home and in the crabapple trees in his front yard.
Tens of thousands of Americans this year will do the same.
Short on time, leery of ladders and lacking expertise for sometimes-elaborate lighting displays, homeowners are opening their wallets and hiring others do the work.
This is the third year that Gendron has hired Lucas Tree Experts, a Portland tree service company that installs Christmas lighting and decorations for homeowners and businesses during the holiday season.
When it gets closer to Christmas, Gendron and his family will trim indoor and outdoor trees for the festivity and pleasure of it, while also enjoying the lights and wreaths put up by Lucas Tree.
"These people are professionals at what they do, much like we're professionals at what we do," said Gendron, who owns a commercial real estate firm. "We're not able to do what they do as well as they can do it."
Lucas Tree is a franchisee for Christmas Decor Inc., a Texas-based company with 375 franchises in 48 states and Canada that will put up holiday decorations for 40,000 customers this year, according to Christmas Decor marketing director Brandon Stephens. The company has been adding 30 to 40 franchises and 5,000 to 6,000 customers a year, he said.
This sort of thing hasn't made it to North Dakota yet (at least not that I've heard), which is odd considering that by the time most people up here get around to decorating their homes for Christmas the weather is something less than convenient. Hardly anybody has their lights up yet and the high today was just 4 degrees above zero.
Still, though, what a testament to the wealth created in this country that people are willing to spend money on something like this.