When Amber Abell moved from Kilgore to Tyler during the summer, she heard about Wilhite’s good reputation and started using his services for yard maintenance. “I’m always complimentary of Wilhite,” she said. “I can be particular but they always do a good job the first time.”
Mrs. Abell, 33, said together, she and Wilhite came up with a design to decorate her home for Christmas. Wilhite’s design kept with the traditional style of the home, an older red brick house on West Eighth Street. She said she wanted colored lights to make it more fun for her children, Frank 4, and Ruby, 2. Smaller lights were placed in the trees and shrubs, larger blue lights line the house, wreaths hang from the windows and garland is strewn along the balcony.
“The scale is just perfect,” she said of the lights, adding that it is festive but not overdone.
Wilhite estimated his crews put out more than 150,000 lights since November.
He said one of the Christmas Dcor trademarks is their tree lighting. He pointed out a tree on Copeland Road that is strewn with lights to look like a Weeping Willow. People stop their cars to look at the tree, which has lights that go up 50 feet, he said. Wilhite crews also decorated a pair of oak trees by East Texas Medical Center, as well as three large trees in the hospital’s parking lot plaza.
“In person, they’re just awe-inspiring,” he said.
Wilhite said they focus on providing exterior installation but will do some interior decorations. They have customers as far as Nacogdoches, Henderson, Athens and Mineola.
“The real talent is our team,” Wilhite said, adding that his three teams work every day for a month to put out lights that are perfectly spaced and edged. He said his employees map each design so they put the lights back exactly how the customer had it the year before unless they request a change.
Wilhite constructed an 800-square-foot warehouse to keep his lights 11 months out of the year. “It’s surprising how full it gets,” he said.
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