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Ronald Muller, owner of Christmas Decor by Aspen Lighting LLC in Vernon, makes a living by relieving this particular stress from home or business owners. Muller knows — first hand — some of the stresses that accompany a beautifully-decorated home. From tangled lights, to design flaws, Muller offers the following five tips for decorating your home for the holidays:

1. Use quality products.  Muller says you can save yourself some headaches by spending a little bit more money on your lights, greenery and bows. Odds are, if you buy cheap, the products won’t last long anyway and will have to be replaced after a short period of time. Muller says that some products will last six to eight years before needing replacement, if they are of good quality, and are cared for properly. So, the short-term benefits of buying a cheaper product are small compared to the eventual cost savings of buying good products.

2. Keep your design simple. Muller says that it is easy to get caught up in the season and ‘go for broke’ on your design. But quickly says that many of the designs that begin that way ‘fizzle’ when it comes to installation. “Installing your display is hard work,” Muller says. “There is a big difference in having an idea and executing it.” Muller says that all good designs start with a vision, but are buffered by reality. “It’s hard work, and there is a real material and labor cost associated with a big display. Many do-it-yourselfers simply run out of steam before they can achieve their initial vision.” Muller adds that most of the displays that are installed use basic techniques to achieve a clean, classy, and festive look.

3. Go with LED. The quality and look of LED products has improved greatly over the years. Muller says that most of the issues discussed with clients have to do with power, and many of these issues can be minimized or avoided with LED products. “First, LED products operate on about 15 percent of the electricity of traditional incandescent products, but the load on your power source is where they have the most impact on installation. Simply put, you can string more LEDs together than incandescents.” And, Muller says, they last much longer than incandescent lights. “You can expect to pay three to five times more for LED products, but the difference is worth it.”

4. Plan The Entire Season. Muller maps each display installed, and keeps that plan on file from season to season. “It makes things much more efficient to know what products you have on hand, and where you need to start,” Muller said. Once the display is installed, you will naturally maintain it throughout the season, and when you take it down, do it with the intent of reinstalling the next year. “You likely won’t think much about the display until the following year, so you can’t label your supplies or your map with enough information,” Muller adds. “It is not a good practice to try and commit it to memory.”

5. Have Fun. Muller says that installing your display should be a fun, creative process. “If you don’t enjoy it, then you are less likely to enjoy the result,” Muller says, adding that even though their team installs dozens of displays, they always try to inject fun into it. “I can think of a lot worse thing that we could be doing,” Muller said.

For additional information on beautiful holiday displays, contact Ronald Muller at Christmas Decor by Aspen Lighting LLC in Vernon at (866)578-0353 or ron@aspencompanies.biz. The company offers complete holiday display design, installation, maintenance, and removal services. You can also learn more at www.christmasdecor.net.

About Christmas Decor

Since its inception in 1986, Christmas Decor has risen to become the premier holiday lighting and decorating company in North America. The Texas-based company was founded by Blake Smith as an off-season supplement to his landscape business and as a method to provide year-round work for employees. Christmas Decor quickly emerged as a viable business opportunity and today, operates in more than 350 markets in 48 states and Canada. Plans are underway to open locations in more than 100 new markets through franchise expansion in select communities around the country. Christmas Decor is highly revered in its field and has received consistent recognition for its efforts; some highlights include having been named one of a Top Ten Home Improvement Franchises for 2008 by Entrepreneur Magazine and AOL Small Business. Christmas Decor’s parent company, The Decor Group, also offers the Nite Time Decor franchise opportunity, a growing 30-unit concept specializing in architectural and landscape lighting services. For more information, visit www.christmasdecor.net.

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