east valley
Volume 3 Issue 24 Mesa, AZ
December 27, 2020
Pandemic failed to darken Mesa lights �irm BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA Tribune Contributor
S
IN THE BIZ
ome of Santa’s busiest elves this year used cherry pickers. Those elves are the employees of family-owned Christmas Light Decorators in Mesa and include 25 full-time and 70 seasonal workers hired to add festivity to a multiplicity of municipalities, shopping centers and private homes in Arizona and beyond. Owners Doug and Marcy Topham are the directors of decorating that begins as early as July. Contemplating holiday decor in the heat of summer takes discipline and desire. This year, the pandemic had its effect on Christmas Light Decorators, especially during the initial shutdown. As the COVID-19 restrictions loosened, municipalities and retail businesses jumped back into the holiday spirit. “COVID-19 definitely affected our business. We had some retailers, especially, who decreased the amount they decorated as they weren’t sure the government would allow them to be open. Others decorated more since they wanted to try to increase traffic at this important time of the year,” said Doug Topham. Christmas Light Decorators CEO Aaron Farrelly, who has been with the company 11 years, said COVID-19 “made things interesting.” “We were unsure how it would affect our industry but in the end our clients all wanted to decorate. I think the desire to have Public Notices ............... page 2 © Copyright, 2020 East Valley Tribune
Among the holiday lights projects undertaken this year by Christmas Light Decorators in Mesa was this display at a high-end mall in Seattle. (Special to the Tribune) Christmas cheer is higher than ever. I think the spirit of Christmas is something people are craving. This seems to have translated into our clients’ desire to keep their properties decorated; and in some cases, even more so than a normal year,” said Farrelly. In 2016, CLD had 360 projects from Flagstaff to Yuma and with stellar and well-known projects like Glendale Glitters (the company’s first project in 2004 uses more than 1.2 million lights) and Prescott’s Courthouse Plaza (the city that now holds the title “Arizona’s Christmas City”). This year, the business had 425 projects in six states, including municipalities and a new extravagant one in a high-end Bellevue Washington shopping (USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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center, The Shops at the Bravern. “I wouldn’t measure our growth so much based on the number of projects but the average size of our projects – and that’s increased,” explained Farrelly. “You have to think about it this way: It would take 30 HOA communities to equal the amount of work we do for one city. We do fewer HOA’s now but more cities.” As happens with city and shopping center displays like Scottsdale’s Quarter’s Holiday Lights, another long-term customer, most work must be done after the stores have closed. That means decorating begins after 9 p.m. and continues throughout the night. At Scottsdale Quarter, besides the exSubscriptions are $26 for 2 years, $14 for one year. Periodicals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ 85026.
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