“Turnkey” is easy to put on a website. Every holiday decor company says it handles everything. The difference shows up in late October, when your display is due on the street, and you find out who designs the layout, who’s in the bucket truck, who comes out when a section goes dark, and where 40 crates of decor go in January.
Holiday Outdoor Decor has been decorating main streets, town squares, shopping centers, and parks since 1921, and at Hersheypark for more than 16 years running. This guide covers what a turnkey holiday decor service should include, what our White Glove Program covers at each stage, what changes when you lease instead of buy, and the few things no decor partner should take off your plate.
Key Takeaways
- A real turnkey service covers the whole season: design, product, installation, in-season service, take-down, storage, and repair between seasons.
- HOD’s White Glove Program covers all seven, delivered by our own design consultants and installation crews. Customers who don’t need the full program can choose the services they want.
- A lease includes the decor and the White Glove service. You get a full display without the upfront purchase, and without storing anything.
- Some things stay with you under any vendor: permits, power on site, and insurance once the display is installed on your property.
- Full White Glove service is available across the Northeast, Midwest, and Florida. Products ship nationwide, and partner teams help outside those areas.
What “Turnkey” Should Mean for a Commercial Holiday Display
For a city, a downtown district, or a shopping center, a turnkey holiday decor service means your team makes decisions, and nobody on staff touches a ladder. The partner designs the display for your actual site, supplies or builds the decor, installs it, keeps it working through the season, takes it down, and stores and repairs it until next year.
Many suppliers stop well short of that. Some sell product and leave the layout to you. Some install but hand the decor back in January for your public works garage to store. Some will design anything you ask for, then subcontract the installation to whoever is available that week.
Each gap lands on someone on your staff, usually in the busiest weeks of their year.
The quickest way to compare vendors is to ask who owns each stage of the season. That is how we’ve laid out the rest of this guide.
What’s Included in HOD’s White Glove Program
Our White Glove Program is how we deliver turnkey service. Here is what happens at each stage.
1. Design Consultation and a Site Visit
Every project starts with a conversation about your space: the poles on your main corridor, the square or entrance you want to anchor, what worked last year, and what you have to spend.
Every White Glove project includes a site visit, so we walk your space in person before we design anything. One of our design consultants then builds a layout for your site, not a catalog page, and our team creates renderings so you can see the finished display before anything is committed.
If you’d like to start on your own, our Kit Builder lets you pick a collection and get a complimentary rendering on a photo of your space.
2. The Decor Itself: Buy, Lease or Build Custom
You can buy your display, lease it, or mix the two, and White Glove service is available either way. Our lines run from ready-to-install pole mounts, ground displays, garlands, wreaths, and panel trees to fully custom pieces built for a landmark, a logo or a local tradition.
Our decor is commercial-grade, built from steel frames, powder-coated finishes, fiberglass and LED lighting, and made to go back up season after season.
Custom pieces need lead time. When production is running steadily, custom orders take roughly four to six weeks, and large trees take longer. That is why the planning conversation should start in spring or summer, not in October.
3. Professional Installation
Our own crews install your display. During the season, HOD runs 7 a fleet of 30+ bucket trucks on the road and more than 40 seasoned crew members in the field.
Installers who put up commercial displays every day know the details that matter on a public street: secure mounting, clean cable runs, and a site left safe for residents and shoppers. We are fully insured for the work we do.
Installation windows go to early signers first. If you sign later in the year, your install will typically land in October or December, depending on our calendar. We do our best to accommodate every customer, based on your location, whether we have other jobs nearby, and how involved your display is.
Some jobs are handled in two passes. Tree wrapping is one of the most labor-intensive installs we do, so we handle it early in October and come back in November to put up the rest of the decorations.
4. In-Season Service and Support
A display that goes up perfectly in November still has to look right on December 23rd. Wind, weather, a loosened bracket or a section that goes dark all happen over a long season. With White Glove, you can report a problem to us 24/7, and you can typically expect someone to come out and troubleshoot within 24 hours. Most of the time it’s a simple fix, and we can often get your display back up sooner by walking your on-site operator through it by phone or FaceTime.
5. Take-Down
Take-down starts a few days after New Year’s Day. We schedule it around early bookings and our own crew calendar, and because take-down moves much faster than installation, we typically finish every job by the end of January. Nothing is left on your poles, buildings or grounds, mounting hardware included, and your staff doesn’t climb, unplug or pack anything.
6. Eleven Months of Storage
Storage is the part of the season most buyers underestimate. A full downtown or shopping center display can fill a garage bay, and decor stored in a damp maintenance yard doesn’t come back looking the way it went in. Under White Glove, your decor goes into our secure, climate-controlled facilities for the 11 months you aren’t using it.
HOD stores decor across four warehouses with 100,000 square feet of storage: Allentown, Pennsylvania; Oswego, Illinois; and Tavares and Pompano Beach, Florida. Every one of them is climate-controlled. Our Tavares warehouse, the largest of the four, carries a Category 5 hurricane rating, which matters for Florida customers storing decor through hurricane season.
Every piece is tracked. Our crews photograph your display and note where each piece is installed. At take-down, they check every piece against that record. Back at the warehouse, your decor is tagged, binned and cataloged in our ERP system under your job number, so it is never mixed up with anyone else’s. You can ask for an inventory list at any time. Your decor is also covered by our insurance the whole time it’s in our care, and if a piece is damaged while we have it, we replace it.
For the full process, read How We Track and Store Your Holiday Decor.
7. Inspection, Repair and Refurbishing
After take-down, your display goes into a refurbishment schedule that runs until the next season. Standard work includes replacing bulbs, correcting ornament discoloration, touching up cosmetic scuffs and scratches, and cleaning garland and bows. Because of this step, commercial decor spreads its cost across eight or ten seasons and goes back up looking the same in year eight as it did in year one.
Refurbishing is included in our comprehensive White Glove Program. If you’ve chosen storage and installation only, ask your project manager what your plan covers. Before any large repair or replacement, we talk it through with you first, and when a piece nears the end of its useful life, we’ll ask whether you’d like to replace or upgrade it.
Who Handles What: A Season at a Glance
| Stage | HOD handles | Your team handles |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Consultation, site visit, custom layout and renderings | Sharing your goals, budget and site details, then approving the design |
| Decor | Supplying, leasing or custom-building every piece | Choosing buy, lease or a mix |
| Power | Installing the display to run on the power you provide | Providing power on site, or getting permission to use it |
| Installation | Our own crews, bucket trucks and equipment, fully insured for our work | Permits, site access and any street or lot closures |
| In-season | Troubleshooting, typically within 24 hours, and repairs | Reporting an outage, any time |
| Take-down | Full removal, starting after New Year’s and typically finished by the end of January | Nothing |
| Storage | 11 months in our climate-controlled warehouses, tracked by tag, bin and job number, and insured while in our care | Nothing, though you can ask for an inventory list at any time |
| Refurbishing | Inspection, repair and refurbishing between seasons | Approving any large repair or replacement |
What’s Included in a Lease
Leasing puts a full commercial display on your streets without the upfront cost of buying one. For a public budget, that is often the difference between a display this season and a display three budget cycles from now. And because White Glove service comes with every lease, your team never stores or repairs anything.
Every HOD lease covers the full season:
- Design consultation, a site visit and a custom layout built for your space
- Renderings before anything is committed
- Use of the decor for the full lease term
- Professional installation by our own crews
- Service and repairs throughout the season
- Take-down at the end of the season
- Climate-controlled storage for the 11 months you aren’t using it
- Inspection, repair and refurbishing between seasons
- The option to swap pieces from one season to the next
Leased decor is stored, tracked, and cared for exactly the same way as owned decor. The one difference is flexibility. Lease customers can swap pieces out, so residents see something new without you buying anything new. Unless you ask for a swap, we prepare your display based on the previous year’s installation.
Lease Terms
Lease terms, pricing, and project minimums depend on your location, the decor you choose and how involved the installation is, so every lease is built around the project. Talk to your sales rep about the terms that fit your display.
Lease or Buy?
Leasing usually makes sense when the budget is tight this year, when you want the display to change over time, or when you have nowhere to store decor. Buying makes sense when you want signature pieces that are yours permanently, such as a landmark tree or a custom piece built around your town seal. Plenty of communities do both, owning their signature pieces and leasing the rest, and our crews service everything the same way.
If you buy, White Glove service is available for everything you purchase, and you don’t have to take the whole program. Some customers want installation and take-down only, others want storage too. We’re happy to tailor the services to the job.
What Turnkey Doesn’t Include (With Anyone)
A good partner is clear about where its job ends. With HOD, and with any reputable vendor, a few things stay with you:
- Permits. We don’t pull permits or file closure plans for you. Your public works, events or property team handles approvals for your site.
- Power. You provide power on site, or get permission to use it, before installation day.
- Insurance once the display is up. We carry our own insurance and liability coverage, and your decor is covered the whole time it’s in our care. Once a piece is installed on your property, it falls under your own insurance. If you’re in a coastal or hurricane-exposed market like Florida, check that your policy covers seasonal installations before the season starts.
- Site access. Our crews need access to poles, rooftops, plazas or lots on the scheduled install and take-down dates.
Where White Glove Service Is Available
Complete White Glove service is available across the Northeast, Midwest and Florida. Outside those areas, we work with partner teams across the country who can help. Our products ship nationwide, and our team can advise on layout and installation anywhere in the country.
When to Start Planning
The fall rush runs from Labor Day to Thanksgiving, and the buyers who wait until then are choosing from whatever is left. Here’s a simpler calendar:
- January to February: Our biggest discount of the year, 35% off, during the early-order window. The best time to add a new centerpiece or extend your display down another block.
- Spring and summer: Design consultations, site visits and renderings. Get custom work and large trees on the production schedule.
- By September 1: Order by now if you want your pick of decor.
- Mid-October: The outside edge for made-to-order decor, with very limited choice. After that, it’s in-stock items, first come, first served.
Questions to Ask Any Turnkey Holiday Decor Provider
Whether you’re writing an RFP or comparing two quotes, these questions show quickly whether “turnkey” means the whole season:
- Who designs the layout, will you visit the site, and will I see renderings before I commit?
- Are the installers your own employees or subcontractors?
- What happens when something breaks mid-season, and how fast do you respond?
- Where is my decor stored, is it climate-controlled, and how is it tracked?
- Who is responsible if a piece is damaged while it’s in your care?
- Is repair and refurbishing between seasons included?
- If I lease, what’s included, and can I change pieces from year to year?
- Can I buy through a purchasing cooperative?
- Can you provide references from customers who’ve renewed for several years?
For the last two, HOD is a vendor on BuyBoard, PA COSTARS and GovProcurement, which lets many public entities buy through an existing contract. Our longest partnerships include Main Street Manayunk and the City of Philadelphia (16+ years), Hersheypark (16+ years), the Mall at University Town Center with Benderson Development (14+ years), and the City of Bethlehem, PA (7+ years).
For a full vendor checklist, see What to Require From Your Commercial Holiday Decor Vendor and Red Flags When Choosing a Commercial Holiday Decor Vendor.
Let’s Plan Your Season
Tell us about your space, your season, and your budget, and we’ll come back with a design and a proposal, whether you buy, lease or do a bit of both. Public entities can ask for references and our cooperative contract information with the proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
A full turnkey service covers design consultation, the decor itself (purchased, leased or custom-built), professional installation, in-season repairs, take-down, off-season storage, and inspection and refurbishing between seasons. HOD’s White Glove Program includes all of these, and customers who don’t need the full program can choose the services they want.
Yes. Every HOD lease includes design, installation, in-season service, take-down, 11 months of climate-controlled storage, and refurbishing between seasons.
Yes. We can store decor you already own, including pieces you bought elsewhere. Every piece is tagged, binned and tracked in our ERP system under your job number, the same as decor bought from us.
You can report an issue 24/7, and you can typically expect someone to come out and troubleshoot within 24 hours. Many issues are simple fixes we can solve sooner by walking your on-site operator through it by phone or FaceTime.
No. Permits and approvals stay with the property owner or municipality, and customers provide power on site or get permission to use it. HOD is insured and covered for liability on our own work.
Absolutely. Our install crews are busy all year with decor, lighting and banner installs, from Halloween drive-through displays at Roba Family Farms in Scranton, PA, which we’ve helped run for more than seven years, to patriotic decor and seasonal banner programs.
The earlier, the better. January to February brings our biggest discount of the year, 35% off. For custom pieces or large trees, start in spring. If you want your pick of decor, order before September 1.
