Why Commercial Christmas Decorations Start in January: A Year in the Life of a Commercial Christmas Decoration Company

When do you start thinking about Christmas decorations for your business? Well, we start in January!

Creating large-scale Christmas installations for restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars, public spaces, heritage sites, and commercial offices and buildings is a year-round process.

Here’s what a typical year looks like for us here at At Last Events.

January

The first job of the year is to remove decorations for the previous season. While installing the Xmas décor takes time, removal is a lot quicker!

As well as the removal, all stock is packed up according to the job it came from – so if a business wants the same décor as before, it’s ready to go!

But we certainly don't spend the rest of the year waiting for autumn to arrive – January is the prime time to start planning for the coming Christmas! Businesses who want to wow their customers should be planning their Christmas décor now – this gives time for designs to be developed and to get the most value from their budget!

For those early planners, site visits start, and our designers start getting their creative juices flowing!

February/March

As designs start being finalised and booked, decorations start to be created.

Our in-house workshop fabricators start creating the base structures for items such as the world’s biggest Christmas Wreath – a structure created in sections, spanning a diameter of 10 metres – adorning the front of Pan Pacific London in 2025.

At the same time, our professional Christmas decorators begin creating the decorative elements that will be attached to these structures, alongside standalone decorations for windows, trees, walls, ceilings and outdoor spaces.

Site visits continue as enquiries come in, and our designers are still busy preparing visualisations for each proposal.

April

This is the deadline to get orders into the factories. It takes time to manufacture, especially if there are branded garlands, ornaments etc. In addition, UK suppliers also put their orders in at this time.

It is important to remember that UK suppliers will order a set amount of stock – this will service the orders they already have, as well as a set amount of stock they can sell on. This means there is an increasingly limited amount of stock available to purchase as the year marches on.

Ordering later puts businesses at risk of compromising their festive display, while also facing higher prices and fewer product options.

May

Our designers continue developing concepts while our workshops remain busy manufacturing bespoke decorations and preparing installations for later in the year.

June

We tend to find enquiries start picking up at this time of the year.

In June 2026, we had already booked one whole week of November installations – a prime time that many other companies will be looking for.

With many other dates already booked, June really should be your deadline for starting the process.

July

Where we are manufacturing large-scale Christmas installations, we will take the structures on site to provide a test run to ensure fittings are suitable and that the structure is correct.

In doing this, we can ensure that any issues can be rectified before installation, rather than discovering them on site during a live project.

August

Production starts to ramp up as we take on our seasonal staff to assist with the production of our decorations.

September

Some of our bigger commercial Christmas installations are scheduled for September – for many businesses, this is before Christmas has even been thought about!

October

This is when the bulk of our commercial Christmas installs start. We regularly install decorations for hospitality, retail, heritage buildings, landmarks, transport hubs and commercial offices.

At this point, our manufacturing workshop is focused entirely on supporting our installation teams, and they are finalising projects that have already been booked in.

We find we have to turn many enquiries away at this point unless the requirements are simple.

November

This is the prime time for commercial installs and our Xmas decoration teams work around the clock, 7 days a week.

There will be various teams covering a variety of different installations including those which have to be completed at night due to business requirements.

Our teams are also used to dealing with businesses that operate 24/7 such as hotels.

One of our larger installs incorporated a 20ft tree as a centrepiece of Christmas décor for a restaurant. This involved the dismantling the seating areas around the location of the tree, to allow for installation and decoration, before refitting the tables around the base of the tree.

December

The beginning of December is still busy for our installers, and we may be able to find time for any late enquiries that come in, that are relatively simple.

There may be some businesses that require décor to be removed by the new year, and so our teams may be out removing these between Christmas and the new year.

But once the installs are completed, the team can have a well-earned rest before the cycle starts all over again!

Why businesses benefit from booking early:

As our timeline shows, it is crucial to start planning your festive decorations as early as your business will allow:

• Secure your preferred design and products.

• Book your ideal installation dates before they fill up.

• Allow time for bespoke design and manufacture.

• Avoid stock shortages and premium pricing.

• Maximise your available budget.

Whether you're planning Christmas decorations for a hotel, restaurant, shopping centre, office, visitor attraction or heritage property, starting early gives you the widest choice of designs, products and installation dates. Our team manages every stage of the project, from initial concepts and visualisations through to manufacture, installation and post-Christmas removal.

To receive a proposal for Christmas décor for your business, including visualisations and a transparent quote, please email hello@atlastevents.co.uk, call 01277 365 870 or complete our contact form.