The budget was $400. Somebody found a tree on sale, two people went to the shop on a Thursday afternoon, and by five o'clock reception looked… fine. Not bad. Fine.
Then January came, and the same two people had to take it all down. In a considerably worse mood.
If you've run that afternoon before, you already know the $400 wasn't the cost. Here's the rest of it.
What DIY Actually Costs
The afternoon. Two or three people, half a day, plus the shopping trip and the arguing about ribbon. You know what an afternoon of your team's time is worth better than we do. Multiply it and add it to the $400.
Doing it again next year. Either you buy fresh every December, or you store it. Storage in a Toronto commercial lease is not free space, and the box that goes into the closet in January is never quite the box that comes out in November.
Takedown. The forgotten line item. It's the same people, it's nobody's favourite job, and it always slips to the second week of January — which means your reception is still wearing December halfway through the new quarter.
How it looks. This is the honest one. An office decorated by willing amateurs on a deadline looks like an office decorated by willing amateurs on a deadline. Sometimes that's charming. In a reception where clients wait, it usually isn't.
When DIY Is Genuinely the Right Call
We'd rather tell you this than sell you something you don't need.
Do it yourself if: your team actually enjoys it, your floor is back-of-house with no client traffic, and someone has genuinely volunteered for January. A decorating afternoon that people want is a good afternoon. Nothing we sell replaces that.
Hire it out if: clients come through reception, you have a street-facing entrance people walk past, nobody has a spare afternoon in November, or you have already had the "so who's taking this down?" conversation once and don't want it again.
What You're Actually Buying
Not ornaments. The removal of a project.
Somebody else designs it, builds the trees and garlands, brings everything in on a date that suits you, and — this is the part that matters — comes back in January and takes every piece of it away. Decor, plants, planters. Nothing left in your storage room.
And it looks like it was planned, because it was.
The Number, So You Can Compare Properly
A decorated interior runs $2,397 to $5,042 for the season with us. A decorated street entrance is $2,208. Removal in January is inside those numbers, not extra.
That's a real budget line, not a petty-cash run. Set it against your own arithmetic — the afternoons, the storage, the January mood — and the gap is usually smaller than it first looks. Here's the full price breakdown.
Either Way, Book Before Halloween
If you're hiring, install dates between November 10 and December 10 fill in the order deposits arrive. A 50% deposit holds yours.
If you're doing it yourself, the same deadline applies for a different reason: the good stuff sells out, and a decorating afternoon planned in October is fun. One improvised on December 5 is not.
See the packages: Office holiday decorations in Toronto
Or tell us about your space and we'll tell you honestly whether it's worth it.
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