Meet the professional Christmas tree decorator who makes £2k to pay for her entire festive season
A professional Christmas tree decorator, whose service is so popular she started taking bookings in July, is set to make £2K this year – enough to fund her entire festive season.
Janine Ralph, 30, from Withywood, Bristol, decided to turn her love of interior design into a side-hustle and advertised a Christmas tree decorating service on Facebook last year.
The mum-of-two was shocked when she found herself inundated with responses expressing interest.
This year, knowing how popular she'd be, she has upped her prices and started taking bookings in the summer.
Ralph is now fully booked for Christmas 2023 with 27 clients desperate for her services, which start from £40 for a 7ft tree.
She has now started working through her bookings, beginning as early as 6 November.
"I've always loved interior design and decorating my own house," Ralph, who also runs an independent gift business, explains.
"All my friends said I should do it as a service – and I've never looked back.
"I thought I'll give it a go again this year because I really enjoy it.
"When I announced my books were open back in July, loads of people booked in straight away.
"It's only half way through November and I'm already fully booked up."
Watch: Professional gift wrapper shares top tips
Ralph charges different prices depending on services, with her rates starting at £40 for a standard-sized, pre-erected tree.
She ups the price if the client needs her to assemble the tree and string up the lights.
While Ralph has had no formal training, having a creative eye and seeking online inspiration helps her put together some incredible tree designs.
She either uses clients' own decorations or charges an extra fee to buy some to bring with her, including more unique items such as mesh and ribbon.
Based on her current 27 bookings starting in early November, she hopes to hit £2,000 this year and says that will "completely cover" the cost of her family's Christmas.
"The extra cash will help out loads," she says.
"But I also love doing it and get a little kick when people compliment my work.
"I'm very fussy and if I don't think it looks right, I'll move things around.
"Every tree I do needs to look perfect."
Despite it only being November 2023 Ralph says people are keen to secure her services for 2024. "I've already got people asking when I open my books for next year!"
Tree decorating isn't the only professional service people are offering during the festive season.
Rachael Wood, 33, from Birmingham is a professional gift wrapper who first trained to wrap presents while she studied visual merchandising at college.
It was only when she spent a whole day wrapping a client's entire Christmas haul three years ago to help them save time before a trip, that she saw how useful it was and started doing it as a job.
Wood now wraps hundreds of presents – aiming to do it as sustainably and cost-effectively as possible.
During the festive period, she charges between £6 and £9.50 a gift and provides a door-to-door service.
Her top tips include using a hairdryer to remove stickers from bags and boxes, so you can reuse them, and drying citrus fruits in the air fryer to create natural embellishments.
Read more about Christmas trees:
Best artificial Christmas trees 2023: John Lewis, M&S, Argos, Homebase and more (Yahoo Life UK, 7-min read)
How to decorate a Christmas tree like a professional (Good Housekeeping UK, 5-min read)
Why a Christmas tree in your bedroom means better sleep (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
John Lewis say Brits plan to have two Christmas trees this year (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
Additional reporting SWNS.
