Christmas decor installers keeping it light

Imagine being in a lift or dangling by a rope from a precipice dozens of feet in the air, with bitter gales needling falling snow onto a now-numb face, frozen fingers trying to manipulate intricate and sometimes finicky wires charged with electricity.

It's "light duty" only in the most literal sense, and that's why more people each year are taking a shine to paying companies a little silver and gold to install Christmas lights at their homes.

Some businesses in Utah and elsewhere — sometimes part of large franchises, sometimes small shops — do it hour after hour, day after day, for sums ranging from pocket change to tens of thousands of dollars. They've seen the industry grow light-years recently.

"Back in the '60s and '70s, we all lived in nice, small ranch homes and ramblers, and it was easy for the husband to get out there and hang lights. It wasn't that big of a deal," said Vance Brand, who owns Christmas Light Professionals of Salt Lake City with his brother, Ryan.

"Now there are homes on the east bench in Draper that have 50-foot drops. Park City, it's the same thing. We're actually using lifts and not ladders to reach these eaves, and it gets absolutely crazy for anybody to try to tackle that stuff by themselves."

"There is a learning curve, and then you can't be afraid of heights," said John Lundwall, owner of X Light Co. of Salem. His work has even called for an 80-foot boom for stringing lights atop huge trees — not a job for lightweights. "And when you're up 80 feet, it feels like 300," he said.

Booming market

Many light installation companies are franchises — popular with lawn-care professionals looking to make a little green during the winter. Christmas Decor, with eight reps in Utah among 375 in 48 states and Canada, is an example. The company has been around since 1986 and does about 85 percent of its 40,000 installations at homes — a business sector growing by 7,000 to 10,000 homes a year for the company, based in Lubbock, Texas.

Brand is a licensed electrician whose company has been installing holiday lights for 16 years, from dim beginnings to the bright present.

"The first year I did this I was just in college and somebody said, 'Hey, could you put up our lights?' I said, 'Sure.' But the next year, I went door to door and nobody else was interested. I did maybe three houses that year. The next year, I did a couple of fliers and went to malls and maybe had eight or nine customers. In 1995, I thought about selling the business, but it's blossomed since about 1996 and every year it doubles."

Christmas Light Professionals is expecting to handle 300 jobs during this month and next.