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christmas_business_bizjorn
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Creative Decorating Works Year- Round
to Prepare for the Holidays
Midlands Business Journal
September 19, 2003
by Stephanie Kollmar |
 Its Christmas all year long at Creative Decorating in Omaha, as the company builds lighted wire displays and wreaths for the holidays in a shop that plays Christmas music regardless of the season.
Decorating the outside of his parent’s home as a teenager became a hobby for owner Brad Finkle. “I keep adding more and more lights, and soon people offered to pay me to hang the lights at their homes,” Finkle said. “I started with a dozen homes in the 1980’s and now it’s grown to over 200 homes and businesses.
“We do lots of work in Linden Estates, stringing up to 100,000 lights on a single home. Some businesses we have as clients are Nebraska Laser Eye, Omaha Community Playhouse and Ameristar Casino.”
Finkle creates wire-frame lighted displays during the off-season to fulfill pre-orders and to have on hand for homeowners to purchase on line at www.CreativeDecoratinginc.com.
“Our specialty is decorating the exterior of homes and businesses” Finkle said. We start installs in mid-October, putting lights on evergreens and other areas where they’re not easily visible. “You never know what the weather is going to be and people want their lights on at Thanksgiving, so we have to start early to get it all done in time”.
Last year Creative Decorating installed more than 750,000 lights, even installing FM transmitters at displays so people driving by can turn their radios to the station and hear holiday music.
The past year and a half, Finkle has been working on a step-by-step manual called “The Business of Exterior Christmas Decorating”. This training manual is for people interested in getting into the holiday decorating industry. “For the past several years, people have been calling with questions about how to start their own decorating business, giving the idea for the manual.
“I’m really excited! The response for this manual has been overwhelming. The last thing I ever though I’d be is an author, but here I am with a 150-page how-to manual.”
Over the years, Finkle has watched the style of holiday decorating change. While most people still slowly add to their displays every year, what they use in those displays varies. “People tend to stick to a single color or two instead of multicolored displays,” he said. “Everybody still likes the clear lights, though I personally like the color lights.”
“I’ve done homes completely in red, which turned out really unique and neat. A couple homes have 25-foot evergreens, which I strung the old-fashioned way- with multicolored mini lights and the larger, old-fashioned bulbs. It brings back a more traditional look.”
The most creative Finkle has ever gotten on a design was when he hot-glued lights onto a customer’s house. “The customer wanted lights on the house itself, which was difficult because he had a stone house,” Finkle said. “There really wasn't anything to staple or nail onto, so I hot-glued the lights on the mortar between the stones.”
Finkle has received numerous awards over the past 20 years for his elaborate Christmas displays. The first one was 1988 from Illuminating Engineering Society Of North America. Others include: The Omaha World Herald, Kelly’s Christmas lights Award, and several homeowner association acknowledgments.
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