The year or the city doesn’t matter. At least in Spain, Christmas usually comes accompanied by a series of images that are repeated December after December, invariably: streets full of colored LEDs, balconies where papanoeles and other Christmas decorations, shop windows in which gold, silver and reddish colors suddenly predominate… and living rooms in which trees full of tinsel and garlands sprout overnight.
Year after year the same questions are also repeated: better natural or artificial tree? And above all… What the hell do we do with it after Epiphany, when it’s time to pick up the decorations? Where do we store it, if we already have the storage room all the way up? There are those who have seen a promising business in those doubts.
Tree Earrings. There is no Christmas without decorations. And there is no Christmas decoration worth its salt without a good tree. It has been this way all our lives, but just in case there were any doubts, cities like Vigo, Barcelona, Badalona and Madrid have been reminding us for years, determined to build gigantic trees in the heart of the city. Something similar happens in businesses, offices and homes.
People demand trees (both artificial and natural), something that is felt in nurseries and large decoration chains. As a reference, the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) estimates that between 25 and 30 million natural Christmas trees are sold in the US each year, which requires a huge plantation with hundreds of millions of specimens spread across the country. The dilemma, whether you choose real or fake fir trees, is… What to do with them later?
A question, a business. There are those who have seen that question and the demand for Christmas trees as a business. After all… Why rack your brains choosing decorations, assembling them, disassembling them and then looking for a place to store them for months if we can pay a company to take care of everything? Or better yet, what if instead of buying the tree we rented it?
Perhaps leasing trees sounds strange, but a quick Google search shows a few companies that operate in Spain and are dedicated to precisely that: temporarily giving away trees full of lights in exchange for a fee. The offer is wide and includes everything from small specimens to others of large size and size, both for indoor and outdoor spaces.
But is it a business? Yes. The holidays may only last a few weeks, but if companies like Ximenez, the company from Córdoba that has been in charge of setting up decorations in Vigo, Madrid, Barcelona or Milan, have shown something, it is that Christmas decorations can become a million-dollar business. After all, it is not only families who demand decoration. Governments and companies of all kinds also do it, from businesses that do not have space to store decorations the rest of the year to hotels that need trees for their living rooms and hallways.
In a warehouse in Madrid… One of the most popular Christmas tree rental companies in Spain is B&M, a family business with twenty years of experience that works from a warehouse in Tetuán, Madrid.
Recently its managers explained to The Spanish Newspaper Every campaign, about 200 trees come out of there ready to decorate and that the company itself is in charge of collecting once the holidays are over. Their work involves several challenges, such as matching the taste of their clients and coordinating the logistics that require dismantling and removing 200 trees during the second week of January. “The pickup is intense because on the 9th everyone wants you to pick it up.”
“Three, four hours at least”. The company also makes it clear that although it may seem like a simple task, preparing the ideal tree requires work. First they convey a proposal to the clients. Then they shape it. “A four or five meter tree is a job for about five or six people, who have to spend at least three or four hours on it,” clarifies the firm, explaining for example that there are businesses that want trees with their corporate colors.
How much do these services cost? On its website there are rates (with delivery and collection service included) ranging from 265 to 2,800 euros, without VAT. It all depends on the tree you want. They range from 1.5 to five meters.
Are there more options? Yes. The demand for Christmas decorations is intense enough that it has encouraged other businesses, such as those that are committed to sustainability and offer a pot rental service. Your proposal? Instead of buying a plastic tree or taking a felled fir, rent one that you can place in your house alive, with its pot.
Once in your living room you can decorate and take care of it and after Christmas the company will collect it to take it to a forest or to its nursery of origin.
Imágens | Arun Pitbhotla (unsplash) and Jared Lind (unsplash)
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