Leaving no lights unstrung

Alicia Robinson

Balboa Island and the Balboa Peninsula are all aglow for the

Christmas Boat Parade that begins Wednesday, and making the area

festive and bright has kept some local businesses bustling.

Restaurants and hotels along the parade route and boating services

expect to be busy, but before they shift into high gear, stores that

sell holiday decorations and the people who put them up are already

in overdrive.

At Crown Ace Hardware in Corona del Mar, shoppers are greeted by

an inflatable snowman at the door, and immediately inside is what

most customers have been buying for the last month -- strings of

holiday lights.

“That’s basically my job, stuck in Christmas lights eight hours a

day,” said Jose Lopez, who handles merchandising for the store.

He’s sold about 3,000 boxes of lights so far, he said.

“Some are buying cases of them,” Crown Ace assistant manager Lucy

Williams said. “Our volume, I think, is larger this year than

previous years.”

They expect sales of holiday decorations to taper off in the next

week, but until then strings of icicle lights, colored spheres made

of tiny lights and inflatable Grinch characters are likely to remain

popular.

Down the road at Armstrong Garden Center, several Christmas trees

were tagged “sold” and waiting to be picked up. Store manager Tom

Snyder said his holiday business will wane this week also.

He estimates he’s sold about 400 fresh wreaths, 50 rolls of

evergreen garlands, 600 Christmas trees and several thousand

poinsettias. Customers often preorder to ensure they get large trees.

“Most people want their trees and wreaths for the boat parade,”

Snyder said. “They need big [trees] to stand out on their boats.”

The professionals

The next step is stringing up lights and hanging wreaths -- or

hiring someone to do it. That’s what keeps Damon Burris busy this

time of year.

Burris and business partner Mike McCluer work other jobs during

warmer months, but in the fall they put Santas, candy canes and other

holiday trimmings on houses, patios and docks for customers.

The two have been putting up lights in Orange County for about

seven years, and they decided a few years ago to start their own

business, Island Lights. Burris grew up on Balboa Island and still

lives in Newport Beach.

“Last year we did about 35 [homes], and this year we’ll probably

do about 45 just on the island itself,” Burris said.

They’ve decorated close to 90 homes in Newport Beach this year.

They charge about $200 to decorate a two-story house, but an

elaborate job on a multi-story home can cost upwards of $500, Burris

said.

They spend their days climbing on roofs and up trees, and they

also do maintenance and take down the decorations after the holidays.

“The people that we do lights for are just really nice people, and

we get a lot of word-of-mouth business,” Burris said. “People make us

hot chocolate and homemade soup and bake us cookies.”

A bright holiday reward

Everyone who’s been decorating homes and boats will get their

reward this week when the sun goes down and the lights go on.

One couple on Bay Front Drive knows that reward better than

anyone.

Jim and Peggy Rich have their home decorated several times a year

for various holidays, and this time they’ve left no light unstrung.

Small, white trees and lights are placed along the Riches’ dock,

and a sleigh pulled by reindeer is mounted on a revolving pole on the

roof of their house.

A singing, animatronic Santa stands on a balcony with microphone

in hand and red and white striped candies dot the scene.

The piece de resistance will be a snowman Jim Rich built himself

that makes its own snow with a refrigeration unit inside.

For Peggy Rich, the best part of the decorations is having

children see them.

She now has grandchildren to enjoy them, and the house attracts

overflowing crowds of holiday light-seers, she said.

“During the boat parade you can’t even walk by our house,” she

said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.