Blog - ChristmasNightInc.com

October 9, 2012March 5, 2014

Five Trends in Christmas Decorating

Decorating your home for Christmas used to be mainly inside the house and was focused on the room with the tree.Many of us can remember going out to cut or purchase a live tree, bringing the boxes and boxes of tree lights and decorations out of storage and the fun of placing the tree in a stand, wrapping the lights around (and trying to find out which one in the string was causing the problem), hanging baubles , tinsel and icicles and finishing with the tree topper and tree skirt.

How have our lives changed? We have less time. We want things prepared or done for us and we are prepared to pay for the convenience. Many of us have less space to store all the tree decorations, but many of us have larger homes with more connection to the outdoors. New technologies and less expensive overseas manufacturing have impacted the kind of Christmas decorations we display.

We have written before on the movement to bring Christ back into Christmas with Nativity Sets, the use of pre-decorated trees and the movement to outdoor decorating. These trends continue to change the face of Christmas decorating. There are. however, several new developments which have impacted the preparation for Christmas celebration.

1. The return of the original reason for Christmas, that is, the birth of Jesus Christ, has created a growing demand for traditional Nativity sets, with the larger sets often replacing the Christmas tree as a focal point for the celebration.

2. When a Christmas tree is the focal point, it is often a pre-lit, pre-decorated tree ,which is complete out of the box. This saves a lot of time but loses the closeness of the family ritual.

3. Newer homes often merge indoor and outdoor space and this invites more outdoor Christmas decorating. The decorating can be shared with the neighbors or can become community projects.

led-santa 4. Most Christmas Lighting has become LED in different tones, replacing the incandescent C-7 or mini light. The look is often brighter and there is a saving in use of electricity.This lighting evolution also applies to large lighted Christmas Displays such as animated Toy Trains and Santa, Sleigh and Reindeer

fiberglass-santa 5. Life Size and larger fiber glass Christmas display figures such as Santa, Sleigh and Reindeer, Nutcrackers, Toy Soldiers, Santa, Snowmen and Christmas Carolers.were mostly seen in commercial displays in shopping centers, retail stores and municipalities. Overseas manufacturing and more accessible pricing and wider distribution have brought these impressive figures home for outdoor decorating.

In general, there are many more Christmas Decorating options than ever before.

September 19, 2012March 5, 2014

Our Customers Write

We send website newsletters every few weeks to our mailing list of past and present customers. In these newsletters we try to include advice on Christmas decorating and Nativities. We show pictures of new products and special offers as well as regular features of our website such as our free pictures and our Lay Away Plan.

A few weeks after we ship a product we ask the customer to rate the product and our service, with both a comment and a zero to five star score. We receive some wonderful comments and we have published the best in our blog.

We had one recently that we want to share with you.

customer-photo

Jeanette Ricker writes:

Husband Arthur built the stable; he’s been a building contractor and inspector. [The building can be dismantled for storage.] For several years now, we’ve wanted to add the 3 Kings…as well as cattle and/or a donkey, etc. Truth is, we just can’t seem to afford to do so. We have a HUGE family – growing by leaps and bounds – and by the time we plan gifts for those we MUST gift, there’s just nothing left for our outdoor display. We’d take you up on your “buy now, pay later” plan, but every January 1^st we end up so “far behind” that this kind of planning doesn’t help us at all. WE DO keep your catalog and ads handy and – if and when we feel we are able – will be in touch to add pieces to our outdoor Christmas display. Thank you for keeping US in mind!

Jeanette F. Ricker – dba The Executive Assistant – [email protected]

Husband – Arthur W. Ricker, Jr

September 10, 2012July 27, 2021

The Benefits of Preparing for Christmas Early

With the summer quickly disappearing into the rear view mirror and the cool air beginning to make a sweep over the entire country, people are rushing to get fall decorations up and the shift has been made from sweet, summery fruit-flavored foods and snacks to apple spice and pumpkin flavors.

It’s a beautiful time of the year as the leaves begin to change and eventually fall to the ground, and of course the fall means one more thing: that Christmas is right around the corner, whether you want to believe it or not!

Many families begin preparing for the next Christmas as soon as the current year’s ends – and others wait until December 24th to begin preparations. But the sooner you can prepare for the holiday season, the better. Here are some benefits to starting preparations now, if you haven’t already.

More Budget for Shopping

In a tough economy like today’s, finding the money to be able to afford a wonderful holiday season can be a tough feat. The shopping, the baking, the cooking, the greeting cards…everything adds up quickly, and if you aren’t prepared, the expenses can be overwhelming.

If you start to plan for the holidays well in advance of the actual season, you’ll have the opportunity to save some money as you go so that you have a large budget when it comes time to make the necessary holiday purchases.

Take Advantage of More Sales

Getting all of the Christmas shopping done all at once might not be the best or most budget-friendly idea. Sure, there are always sales on Black Friday, but for the majority of the rest of the holiday season, prices on high-demand items are actually higher than they would be at other times throughout the year.

By preparing early, you can take advantage of sales that occur throughout the year. If your kids have a list of gifts they would like for Christmas, there’s no reason not to purchase one of them in September if you see the item on sale. Keep in mind, too, that all holiday items go on major clearance sales after the holidays pass, so perhaps the best time to start preparing for next Christmas really is the day after this year’s Christmas.

Prepare the Decorations

If you have large Christmas decoration displays, like giant outdoor Nativity sets or a life size Santa for the kids, preparing for the holidays early will give you plenty of time to get the necessary items out of storage and ready for display.

Shopping for Christmas decorations in the off-season is also much cheaper than if you were to wait until the last minute. Staple decor items like lights, Nativity scenes, wreaths and even garland can be found at specialty shops throughout the year at much lower prices than they’re set around Christmastime.

More Time to Enjoy

The last thing you want to be doing during the holidays is racing around like a maniac trying to get everything done. By making sure you’ve made all of your necessary purchases and prepared for house guests and prepared your decorations early, you’ll have already eliminated much of the stress surrounding the holidays.

That will, of course, leave you with more time to relax and enjoy the time with your family! And there’s nothing more important during the holidays than being able to enjoy the company and make memories and traditions together, so make sure you get the hard parts done early, and you’ll have nothing but a wonderful holiday season!

July 18, 2012February 18, 2019

From Our Wonderful Customers

After we ship an order, our system automatically sends an email to our customer asking them to review the product they received and the service we provided. Once in awhile our review link doesn’t work and our customer writes us directly. It seems that when this happens, our customers shower us with compliments. Being human we wanted to share two of these wonderful emails with you.

From Brenda Robbins:

I clicked on the “review me” link but couldn’t understand what to do after it opened, so I will give my review in the form of this email.

The camels exceeded all my expectations, being even more beautiful than the lovely picture online. The quality, colors and detailing are amazing. We purchased all the other Nativity figures last year and were delighted with the beautiful display. I know the addition of our camels will make it even more spectacular this year. What a beautiful way to share the miracle of Jesus’ birth!

I worked with Don Henderson in putting together my Nativity and found him to be incredibly helpful and professional. He was patient and thorough in answering all my questions and dealing with my somewhat exuberant personality. He dispelled all the stereotypes about New Yorkers’ not being warm and friendly and made a convert of this Texas “gal”.

Brenda G. Robbins.

Brenda is very sweet, but shy, so she declined to provide a picture. Instead we are showing the Nativity Camel she purchased and wrote about!

From Milt Westmoreland:

Don,

I was unable to use the enclosed links to praise your product, but I did want to express my gratitude for my beautiful nativity.

When I was a little boy, I always wanted one of those plastic lighted nativities, but my parents would never buy one because we lived so far off the road that no one would see it. I have always wanted one. I began searching for one years ago and never saw one that looked as good as yours. – they all had ugly paint, were unrealistic looking and were very expensive.

When I saw your 12 piece 54” life size nativity, I had to have it. Each piece is a sculpture in itself and the detail on them is marvelous. Their facial expressions almost make them look real.

My nativity arrived promptly (a little early) and intact. I is the most beautiful decoration I have ever owned. I have a large front yard where thousands of people pass each day. During the Christmas season, drivers-by will see this nativity as the testimony of my love for Christ.

I am keeping this purchase a secret from my family and will surprise them in early November. Surly my home will be spectacular this holiday season. I will be sure to send you pictures.

I rate this product 5 stars PLUS!!!

God bless you all!!

July 9, 2012February 18, 2019

An Updated Version of The Santa Sleigh and Reindeer Story

Originally Santa’s Sleigh had eight reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. This was according to the 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore “a Visit from St. Nicholas” or “The Night before Christmas”. Then Rudolph (the red-nosed reindeer) was added. Rudolph comes from a story originally written by Robert L. May about a foggy Christmas Eve, when Santa lost his way and Rudolph helped find the way with his red lighted nose.

Here is our own version of a modern Santa, Sleigh and Reindeer Story:

There are so many good Children around the world today, that there is no way Santa and his nine Reindeer can reach them all on Christmas eve. So Santa Claus sent the elves to university to learn how to build aircraft. When the elves returned to the North Pole the first thing they did was build an amazing aircraft factory beside the Toy Factory. Here they developed a huge hypersonic jet, which they called Santajet X-12-25 which flies faster than the speed of sound. This jet can hold 500 reindeer, 55 Sleighs and Santas. And there’s provision for a extra deck in case there are more good children in further years who will want Santa to deliver them gifts on Christmas Eve.

While the elves were building the Santajet X-12-25, Santa travelled around the world interviewing men to become junior Santas. He recruited 60 junior Santas. They spent several years training with Santa and now 55 of them are ready to become full-fledged Santas.

Santa also started a reindeer breeding program. And now there is Dasher 1, Dasher 2, Dancer 1, Dancer 2 , Dancer 3 and so on – 500 reindeer in all to pull 55 sleds next Christmas. And all of this was happening while a team of Elves built 55 new Sleighs.

Next Christmas there will be 55 Santa Sleigh teams travelling in the Santajet X-12-25. Each Santa Sleigh and Reindeer team will disembark the Santajet in a different part of the world and deliver gifts to all of the children, who have been good, in that region on Christmas Eve.

So be prepared, Children, for a modern Santa delivery process. You will have to send your Christmas toy list to a special email address at the North Pole. All children who are good this year will receive the email address via email to theirs or their family’s computer. If you’re a kid without a computer in your family you can go to the library and use a computer there. If you’ve been a naughty kid, it may not be too late to be good – but you’ll have to work very had at it.

Note: This is fiction, everything in this story is from the imagination of our writers and not to be taken literally. It is not meant to change anything about all the Santa Sleigh and Reindeer stories that came before our story.

June 14, 2012March 5, 2014

Pictures of Us at Christmas Night/Saint Francis Garden

A picture is worth a thousand words and the social media are proving it. This is a slow sales period for us but we are very busy unloading containers and photographing new items and adding them to our websites. We thought you might want to see some of us working and give you some idea of how our business functions. We have included images from both our Christmas Night and Saint Francis Garden websites.

Claire in our photography studio, setting up lighting while watched over by the Nutcracker King with Scepter. soon to have his picture taken.

Eddie, Our warehouse manager, making sure that the Nutcracker King is positioned correctly

Our dog Codi doing what dogs do, checking out the new Boxer before Claire photographs him for our Saint Francis Garden website

Our new warehouse employee, Josh, repacking the Great Dane after photography

As you can see we have a lot of fun with our inanimate friends.

April 5, 2012February 18, 2019

The Five Things Our Customers Want (We Hope)

As a direct marketing business, selling mostly to consumers, we are constantly trying to identify and focus on what will please our customers and keep them coming back. The solid foundation for this effort is our set of values. This can be summarized quite simply as the paraphrased biblical “Golden Rule” Treat Others as You Would Like to Be Treated. Of course if we didn’t plan, organize and manage for profit we wouldn’t be around to please our customers. Here are the five things we do that we hope please our customers and keep them coming back.

1. Offer Christmas Products They Can’t Find Elsewhere. This is easier to do for Christmas Night because we maintain a sharp focus on large Christmas figures, primarily for outdoor. That means no tree baubles nor tree skirts and no trees either. Just Life Size Nativities, Nutcrackers, Toy Soldiers, Reindeer and other large figures associated with the celebration of Christmas.

2. Provide Superior Customer Service. I answered a customer call the other day and was happy to take an order for 27″ Nativity Set. When I asked the customer (as I usually do ) how he found us, he said we were number two on the Google page but we answered our phone and helped him, which the number one ranked store did not. The term “superior customer service”is a cliche these days as so many companies claim to offer it. Few companies follow all the way through as we do, even after delivery.

3. Offer Good Value. We don’t always have the lowest prices on our products, we offer free shipping on a limited number of products and we rarely discount our product prices. Nevertheless, the product reviews and customer comments seem to confirm that we provide good value. The items which arrive broken are replaced as soon as possible and defective items are repaired or replaced.

4.Maintain High Quality. We have replaced several suppliers who have let their product quality slip, we spot check our incoming shipments and we constantly work with our factories to improve molding and painting.

5. Make Our Products Easy to Find Online. How many times have you entered a key word or phrase online and the search engine takes you to a website which offers nothing even close to what you want, but owes its prominent position to search engine tricks. With us, when you have taken the trouble to define exactly what you want, that’s what you get. No “bait and switch”

So there you have it, an opinionated list of what we see as our strengths. Perhaps you don’t agree and think we are off base or blowing smoke. Please tell us. We really do want your feedback

March 2, 2012February 18, 2019

The Best Things About Christmas That I Miss the Rest of the Year

Contrary to what the National Weather Service reports, I maintain that January and February are the darkest months of the year. Valentine’s Day doesn’t count because lights and lawn decorations aren’t involved.

The Christmas season is bright and brilliant. Outdoor nativity scenes shine across streets, in front of homes, and next to churches. Houses are flooded with twinkling lights inside and out. Colorful reindeer dot snow-covered lawns while each barren tree branch boasts a string of lights.

These magical pools of light illuminate the forgotten streets of our cities and vacant alcoves in our homes. They cast honesty and hope during the darkest month of the year. Even if you tried, it’s hard to find darkness during the Christmas season.

My yuletide creativity was stunted by growing up in a city where delicate white lights were the only acceptable outside Christmas decorations. As a kindergartner, I lobbied passionately for two, fuchsia and gold life-size nutcrackers on our front lawn – a plan that was promptly thwarted by the decorative restrictions of my town’s Historical Society. “Permissible lighting displays only,” indeed.

When I moved 500 miles away to my current residence, the colorful Christmas displays made me feel like a kid in a candy store. The church two doors next to my house erected a stunning outdoor nativity scene that outlined each figure with a delicate thread of white bulbs. The family next door to me proudly anchored a 25-foot fiberglass Snowman with interior illumination on their front lawn.

This exquisitely detailed fiberglass, giant Snowman, who I’ve named Bob, glinted and glistened from the Church lights across the street. And when the sun set each evening his carrot nose shined brilliantly against the snow.

I foster dogs from my city’s Animal Care and Control Center and each new dog seems wary of Bob the Snowman, but only briefly. With enough exposure, each new dog realizes that Bob, the fiberglass snowman is harmless and we continue our walk without incident.

Desensitizing my foster dogs to Christmas season decor was added inspiration for decorating the outside of my house. I drew design concepts and took measurements. Yes, I was going to enshrine my house with enough wattage and Christmas cheer to crash an electrical grid.

One week before Thanksgiving my lights went up. I quickly realized that I lack the balance necessary for safely stringing lights around every outside window, so I concentrated my efforts on my porch. I spent that Saturday tightly coiling any accessible fixture with lights of every color.

Against my shrubs, I stationed my very own white lighting display of a nativity scene. Small bulbs of green, red, yellow and blue flashed rhythmically beneath my porch overhang and clapped my hands with all the delight of a four-year old when I finally plugged in the extension cord.

The volunteer fire department was less enthusiastic about my megawatt display and told me so two days later with a fire-hazard citation warning. I reluctantly removed a third of my coiled lights.

I loved watching my tree lights and porch lights reflect simultaneously off my window. I toyed briefly with the blinking and rolling functions but decided against it after my friend said I shouldn’t let anyone with a history of seizures near my living room.

Perhaps in the summer time I’ll replace them with a set of tropical fish lights. I haven’t decided. But for now, those tiny lights wrapped around the pillars and banister of my porch do a fantastic job of casting warm, Christmas light into my living room.

February 8, 2012

Charleston at Christmas

Our Christmas vacation this year was a trip to The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in the Low Country of South Carolina, not far from the historic city of. Charleston. We took a day to drive into the city, which was bustling with tourists like us and holiday crowds. South Carolina low country has a profusion of churches and Charleston is the same. What is interesting about the churches in the city is the age, history and variety of christian denominations represented.

We first visited St Michael’s Church on the site of the first Anglican Church built south of Virginia. Erected in 1680 as St Phillips Church and subsequently rebuilt several time to replace buildings destroyed by fire or grown too small for the congregation, the current building was opened for services in 1761. The church exterior is dominated by a near 200 ft steeple and weathervane. The interior is very intimate with the native cedar pews almost on top of the altar and galleries hanging over on three sides. The pews have doors at each end, perhaps to ensure the the right people sit there. To the left of the very high pulpit is a small platform where the very small Nativity Set was placed. We thought this an insufficient display for such an historic and inspiring church.

We had been advised to visit the French Huguenot Church, built in the ” French Quarter” of Charleston in 1844. The Huguenots were French Calvinists who faced suppression in France and were very nearly wiped by successive Louis Kings. Growing up English Protestant in Montreal. I can remember being surprised to hear of a French Protestant school surviving in a sea of French Catholics. The present Huguenot church in Charleston, like St Michaels, was rebuilt after a fire and survived damage from the Civil War and the Charleston Earthquake. When we visited, the church was closed for major exterior renovation. Not surprisingly services are conducted in English, except for an annual service in French to celebrate spring.

We then visited the main Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, which is a newly constructed but large and inspiring version of classic church design.As is usual in Catholic churches, there were about five different things going on at the same time. I have always been impressed with their level of activity and utilization of their facilities on days other than Sunday. A very good business model.

We had lunch at S N O B, which is not elitist but stands for Slightly North Of Broad (street). Reservations were required and the food was a wonderful blend of southern and foreign influences.

After lunch we went looking for a Nativity customer who had purchased our Christmas Nativity 40″ and had asked us to drop by when we were in Charleston. The city is a small area and much easier to walk around than drive. Our customer was in a classic Charleston house on a corner of the Historic Area south of Broad Street and sheltered from the street by a wall and wrought iron fence. With luck, we found the creche and had a nice chat with the family. They plan to buy a a larger stable and add new pieces to the Nativity, including the camel.

January 31, 2012February 18, 2019

Keeping the Holiday Spirit Alive

Now that Christmas has come and gone and the holiday season is behind us, many people start to feel like something is missing in their lives. With the holidays always comes a certain feel – it’s in the air you breathe, it’s in the people you meet, it’s in the home you’ve decorated to be so welcome and warm. It’s the holiday spirit, and when the holidays are over, the spirit seems to disappear with it.

That doesn’t have to be the case, though. The holiday spirit is one that people should work to spread all year long, and it can start with you.

Decorate

Decorating doesn’t have to just be for the holidays. When you take down the Christmas decorations and your nativity sets, try putting up something else in their place. Maybe keep some white lights around to mimic the ambiance of having a Christmas tree in your home. Keep winter-scented candles out and burning to bring back that cozy, wintery feel in your home. Stick with winter-themed colors (whites, reds, greens, even some shades of blue) when adding decorations for now, and come springtime, switch it up with brighter hues to lighten up your home.

Keep Baking

There’s just something about holiday baking that brings the whole family together and really warms up a home. So keep baking! Think about cinnamon breads or muffins – even baking something as simple as blueberry muffins can bring back that warm holiday feel to your house. Gather the kids and make some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Get back in the giving mood by sharing with family members and neighbors.

Start New Traditions

Every family has its own holiday traditions, whether it’s putting up your outdoor Christmas decorations together or setting up life size toy soldiers for your annual Christmas party or gathering around the fire for a holiday story. So why not continue the trend by creating some new wintertime traditions? Maybe you take the whole family sledding after the first big snow storm every year. Or maybe you all go to a huge ice skating rink in a nearby city for a weekend every winter. Maybe it’s just that you all sit down and enjoy the same movie on the same weekend of every year. Get creative – and start making traditions that you can keep throughout the winter, not just around the holidays.

Spread the Cheer

Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to be in such a good mood around the holidays? Some of that cheeriness tends to disappear after the New Year as people start to focus on their resolutions and starting a fresh year. Keep that cheer alive. If you start by smiling at 5 people every day, those 5 people will likely smile at others throughout the day, and the cheer will spread as quickly as it does around the holidays. Remember what Christmas feels like, and try to mimic that feeling in your every-day life, then share it with others.

With these few simple ideas, it will be easy to keep the holiday spirit around all year long, and come next Christmas, you’ll be prepared to spread even more cheer than you already have for the past 11 months!