Behind The Scenes, Holiday Decorating~Part 1

A little behind the scenes peek into holiday decorating, well two peaks into the behind the scenes, so stay posted for the next one. People often say how do you keep track of it all? I don't know really I just do, but when I see photos like these I sometimes wonder the same thing. Of course to remember things like this you, you forget other things. Which is why I keep LISTS lots and lots of LISTS and I love to check things off my lists.

Covering the carpet before we load in. Holiday decorating is messy, glitter, glue, wires.  Glitter is the worst culprit, no matter how many times you vacuum or bathe it just sticks around.

 

Carpet covered and tables stacked ready to receive product.

The first truck arrives and its time to unload, all hands on deck.

Now its unloaded, the dreaded next step, getting it all in and up to our work room. They are all waiting for me to tell them what to do next, because I like to supervise don't you know. And also, because my staff knows that if there is anything I hate more it is doing double work; they know I am going to tell them what to take first, where to put it and what order it goes in. Plus believe it or not as it all goes by me I can tell if I have everything just by looking at the boxes.

And in it comes everything to the appropriate area. Wreaths to the wreath assembly area stacked and waiting to be decorated.

Ornaments to the ornament area. All of these boxes have to be broken down and ornament counting and sorting begins. This is the most important part of the process, mistakes here can cause problems later.

More loaded in, it looks chaotic but really it isn't.

Ok, so maybe to me it doesn't look chaotic but it does look like I have confused a few other people.

Ribbon making area and centerpiece assembly. Boxes of ribbon ready to be made into bows, lots and lots of bows. 

Garland to be fluffed, lights checked and sorted.

{me, my daughter Jessica and my Mom}

One of the nice perks of working for yourself is I get to work with my daughter and my Mom can come by, take photos, visit with my staff and take in all the chaos fun.

Me supervising or as I like to phrase it orchestrating the whole process. Besides someone has to be in charge, and that would be me.

Once I know everyone knows what to do for the time being, I am off to find a quiet spot to return calls and finalize details for more jobs and checking on other jobs.

Then I must return to supervise  orchestrate.

This was one holiday decorating installation, it wasn't all the product and it wasn't my warehouse, it is a job site.  The above is why we like to fondly refer to what we do as camping.  We bring it all, set it up, do the work, break it down and move on to the next installation.  Part 2 will show us "camping" outside, that is always a lot of fun.