Two ways to pay for the same display
Every commercial holiday decor program has the same parts: a design, the product, the installation, maintenance through the season, takedown in January and somewhere to keep it all until next year. What changes between leasing and buying is who owns the product and how the cost is spread across years.
With turnkey commercial Christmas decor leasing, you pay one price per season and the product stays ours. With buying, you own the trees, lights, ornaments and ribbon, and you pay us each year for the service program: install, maintenance, takedown and storage. Both are legitimate. We offer both. Which one fits depends on how long you plan to keep the look, how much you want to spend in year one and how much you value flexibility.
This guide explains both honestly, including where buying wins. For lobby trees and large displays, leasing is our default recommendation, and we explain why below. For some exterior programs, buying can make sense. Either way, the installation, maintenance, takedown and storage are the same crews doing the same work. The only difference is who owns what is on the truck.
What a seasonal lease includes
A lease bundles everything into a single seasonal price and a single invoice. Design from a site visit. Product from our own commercial-grade inventory. Installation by insured, WSIB-compliant crews with bucket trucks and aerial lifts, after hours or overnight where needed. Maintenance all season at no charge for any fault. January takedown. Labelled storage in our warehouse. Priority dates the following season.
Because the product stays ours, we carry the risk on it. If a tree section fails, a string goes dark or ribbon fades, it is replaced from our stock and it is our problem. You never store boxes in a mechanical room, ask a superintendent to test strings or wonder whether a five-year-old tree will light this year.
A lease also makes change easy. Refreshing a lobby tree from warm white and gold to blue and silver is a design change, not a purchase. Scaling the program up or down is a conversation at renewal. Multi-year lease agreements lock the price and the dates so budgeting is simple.
- One seasonal price, one invoice, nothing to own or store
- Product risk stays with us and is covered by included maintenance
- Colour scheme and scope can change between seasons
What buying plus a service program includes
When you buy, you purchase the product from our inventory outright: lobby trees, ornaments, ribbon, garland, wreaths, exterior strings, C9 bulbs, cone trees and so on. You then pay each year for the service program. That program is the same work as a lease without the product: installation, season-long maintenance, January takedown and labelled storage in our warehouse.
Year one costs more because you are paying for product and service together. Later years cost less than an equivalent lease because you are only paying for service. If you keep the same look for several seasons and the product is cared for, the total over four or five years can be lower than leasing.
The trade-offs are real. Changing the scheme means buying new ribbon and ornaments. Product ages, and while our commercial-grade LED product lasts well, owners do eventually face replacement. And if the property changes hands or the program is cancelled, you own decor you may not need. We still only install product that came from our inventory, because that is what we can warranty.
- Higher year-one cost, lower cost in later years if the look stays the same
- You own the product and its ageing
- Design changes mean buying new pieces
Side by side
The table below is the way we explain the choice on a site visit. It is not a sales pitch for one side. Some properties are better off buying, usually those with a fixed exterior program and a long-term owner. Most lobby and atrium programs, and most hotels, are better off leasing.
Read the rows about flexibility and risk as carefully as the rows about cost. The cheapest option over five years is not the cheapest option if you change the scheme in year three or the building changes ownership in year two. Finance teams tend to look at the first two rows. Operations teams should look at the last four.
| Factor | Seasonal lease | Buy plus service program |
|---|---|---|
| Year-one cost | Lower; one seasonal price | Higher; product plus service |
| Later years | Same seasonal price, locked on multi-year | Service program only, lower than lease |
| Who owns the product | We do | You do |
| Product failure | Replaced from our stock at no charge | Covered by maintenance; replacement of worn-out product is yours |
| Changing the colour scheme | Design change at renewal | Purchase of new ribbon and ornaments |
| Scaling up or down | Adjust at renewal | Buy more product or leave some in storage |
| Storage | Included, our warehouse | Included with the service program |
| If the program ends | Nothing left over | You own the product |
| Best fit | Lobby trees, atriums, hotels, malls, displays that may change | Fixed exterior programs with long-term owners |
Why leasing is our default for lobby trees and large displays
A pre-lit lobby tree is a large, specialised piece of product. A 12 to 20 foot commercial tree is heavy, comes in many sections, needs testing every year and takes real storage space. Ornaments and ribbon for a tree that size are a significant cost on their own and are the first thing clients want to change when they tire of a look.
Leasing puts all of that on us. We store it, test it, replace failed sections and refresh the scheme when you want. The property gets a finished lobby every year for a predictable price and never deals with the product. For hotels and office towers where the lobby is the brand, that reliability is the point.
Mall village displays, Santa photo sets, giant outdoor trees and animated pixel light shows are the same story at larger scale. Owning a Santa cabin that you use for six weeks and store for forty-six rarely makes sense. Leasing it does. The same goes for animated pixel light shows, where the controllers and the programming are part of what you are leasing.
When buying can be the better choice
Buying makes the most sense for a fixed exterior program on a property with a stable owner and no plans to change the look. A plaza that wants warm-white rooflines and wrapped parking-lot trees every year, a church with an outlined roofline, or a restaurant with a lit patio and cone trees can buy once and pay for service each year.
It can also suit organisations whose budgets favour capital spending over operating spending, or municipalities and BIAs that must own assets bought with certain funds. We will quote both options so your finance team can compare them on the same scope. Ask for both numbers and let the people who manage the money choose.
The one thing we do not do is install product you bought elsewhere. Everything on a roofline or in a lobby under our name is from our inventory, tested by us and covered by our maintenance. That is how we can promise no charge for any fault during the season. If you are switching from another supplier, we will tell you honestly what can be retired.
How to decide for your property
Ask three questions. How long will the look stay the same? If the honest answer is two or three seasons, lease. How stable is the ownership and the budget line? If the property may change hands or the program may be cut, lease. Is the display mostly interior or display pieces? If yes, lease. If the answer to all three points the other way, buying is worth pricing.
Whichever you choose, the program around it is the same: site visit and design in summer, install from October to late November, maintenance all season, takedown in January, storage in our warehouse and priority dates next year. Multi-year agreements are available for both models and lock pricing and schedule. Only the ownership line on the invoice changes.
Call 519-266-6796 or send a request and we will quote both options from a site visit or from plans and photos, with a reply within one business day. Bring last year's invoice if you have one. Seeing what you paid for product and service separately is the fastest way to tell which model fits your property, and we will walk through it with you on the site visit.