Guide
Guide
Mall Christmas decorations: the plan, the approvals and the order date
This guide is for the people who run a mall's or a shopping center's holiday season. It covers which mall Christmas decorations to have made to fit your spaces and which to buy or lease, who has to approve each piece before it goes up, what the fire code asks of trees, greenery, backdrops and walk-in sets, and when to order so the crates reach your dock before the install night.
The spaces
What a mall decorates, space by space
A mall decorates a handful of spaces, and each one sets the piece: what it is, how big it is and who has to agree to it.
Fill the centre court
The court is seen from the upper levels and from across the floor, so it takes the biggest piece: a giant ornament or a group of them, a walk-in ornament or lit figures. Size it to the distance people see it from, and draw its sections to fit the service door and the lift. Giant ornaments for a mall court are drawn that way.
Frame the photo spot
Where families queue for a photo, with Santa or without: a walk-in ornament, an arch over the photo spot or a set built around a chair. Plan the queue with it, because the queue needs its own room.
Mark the entrances
An arch over the way in, lit figures on the forecourt of an open-air center, or C9 bulbs for rooflines and trees. Outdoors, how each piece is held down is your engineer's call.
Line a walkway
In an open-air center, a light tunnel along a path makes a walk-through. Light tunnels built in sections bolt together on site.
Dress the car park poles
Lit motifs on the parking lot's light poles, where the mall owns the poles. Pole-mount decorations are made for exactly that.
Choose the tree and the greenery
Giant wreaths and garland to match can be made to the court's walls and railings in your colours, with the bows fixed on, or come from a catalogue or a leased package. A giant tower tree or a lit frame tree can be drawn to the court and its ceiling, and the fire code section below covers what is asked of trees and greenery. Lit figures and photo-op structures built to drawing are a separate order.
Three routes
From a catalogue, a leased package, or made to fit
There are three ways for a property to get its decorations, and many mix them.
| Question | From a catalogue | A leased package | Made to drawing |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Stock designs in set sizes | The provider's design for your property | Pieces drawn to your spaces, colours and artwork |
| Who owns it | You | The provider, for the term | You |
| Who puts it up and stores it | You or your installer | The provider, in most packages | Your installer, and you store it |
| When you decide | The season you need it | Usually in spring, often for several seasons | In spring, worked back from the install night |
| How it fits the space | You fit the space to the catalogue | Designed for the property | Sized to the spot, the service door and the lift |
| What you compare | A delivered price | The cost over the term | A landed quote: the goods, the freight, the customs entry and delivery, each on its own line |
Plenty of properties mix the routes, say catalogue greenery, a leased package and one centrepiece they own. A piece built to drawing suits the centrepiece a mall wants to keep and bring back, or one in its own colours or design.
Approvals
Who has to say yes before a piece goes up
A piece in a mall answers to several people, and each one asks something different, so the drawing goes round all of them before anything is built.
The mall's management or owner
The common areas are theirs. They decide what may stand where and what may hang from the ceiling, when contractors work, and what a contractor has to show before starting. Ask the management office for its decoration and contractor rules first.
The fire code official
Decides what is acceptable in the building. In the fire code, approved means acceptable to the fire code official (section 202), and some fire departments walk through businesses during the season.
The building official, for a set people step into
A Santa house or a walk-in set with a roof can fall under the building code's rules for kiosks and similar structures in a mall (IBC section 402.6.2): what it is built of, sprinklers and detection inside it, its spacing and its floor area. Check with the building official and the mall before the set is drawn.
The mall's insurer
It may have conditions of its own for decorations and contractors. The management knows what they are.
An engineer, for anything outdoors
How an arch, a tunnel or an ornament on a forecourt is fixed down, weighted and checked against the wind is your engineer's call, made from the drawings and weights.
The electrical inspector, for lit pieces
Before we quote a lit piece, we ask what your electrical inspector or venue will want to see, and build to that.
The paperwork each of them asks for is worked out with you, order by order.
Fire code
What the fire code asks of mall decorations
Where a state or city has adopted the International Fire Code, the rows below are what its text says, and the 2018, 2021 and 2024 editions agree on them. The fire code official applies the edition and the changes adopted where you are, and decides.
| What | What the code says | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| A natural cut tree | Not allowed in shops and malls unless the area has sprinklers, and never in an exit, a corridor, a lobby or a vestibule; kept in a watered stand and taken out when dry (sections 806.1.1 to 806.1.3, 806.2) | The building code lets a mall count as a corridor for its exits (IBC section 402.8.1), so ask the fire code official before planning a cut tree on the concourse |
| Artificial trees, garland and wreaths | They pass the flame test the code names (NFPA 701, or the NFPA 289 heat test), documented by the maker in a form the fire code official accepts (sections 807.4, 807.4.1) | Ask for that documentation on the exact product before you buy |
| Fabric backdrops, drapes and hangings | In shops and malls, fabric hung on walls or from ceilings passes the same test and covers only a limited share of the wall or ceiling (sections 807.2, 807.3) | Plan a fabric backdrop for the photo spot with the fire code official |
| Pieces of steel and lights | The code does not limit decorations that are noncombustible (section 807.1). The skin, mesh, garland or foam on a piece is what the official asks about | Tell us whose rules apply before the skin is chosen |
| Where it stands | Nothing may block an exit, the way to it or the view of an exit sign (sections 807.1, 806.2), and the building code keeps a clear width along the mall between the shopfronts and anything standing in it (IBC section 402.8.1.1) | Mark the piece and its queue on the mall plan before it is drawn |
| A set people step into | Kiosks and similar structures in a mall have their own rules on materials, sprinklers and detection, spacing and area (IBC section 402.6.2) | Check with the building official and the mall before a roofed set is drawn |
| Storage in the building | Empty shop units in a mall are kept free of stored materials (section 311.6) | Plan the storage somewhere else |
| Candles | No open flame on or near decorations (section 806.3, and section 308.1.4 of the 2024 edition) | Keep candles and lanterns away from the displays |
This is what the code's text says, not a ruling on your building. Section numbers are the International Fire Code's unless marked IBC, the International Building Code. In California, ask the fire code official whether material registered with the State Fire Marshal is needed.
Timing
When to order: work back from the night the lights go on
The calendar works back from the install night through drawing approval, production, the ocean and rail legs, the customs entry and a buffer, using an arch built to drawing. The quote gives the date for each piece on your list.
Commercial properties tend to plan and budget their holiday decorations in the spring, and malls put them up after hours in the weeks before the season. The install night is the mall's to set, and the order date counts back from it.
Put the approvals in front of the order date: the management's sign-off and, where they apply, the fire code official's and the building official's. A city puts its procurement process in front of the order date the same way.
Work out order-by dates for any install night on the buying calendar.
Install and after
Getting it in, up, down and stored
Measure the way in
Find the narrowest service door, lift and dock between the street and the spot. The sections are drawn to pass through them.
Approve the drawing
A dimensioned drawing with the sections, the fixings and the weights goes to the management, and to any official who needs to see it, before production starts.
See it lit before it ships
The piece is put together whole and lit at the factory, with photos or a video, then numbered and crated with its assembly drawing. An American on our team checks the goods at the factory before they are packed.
Book the dock and the install night
The crates come in through the mall's dock, and the mall's installer puts the pieces up after hours. We do not install.
Take it down along the same joints
After the season the piece comes apart where it was bolted together and goes back into its crates with the drawing.
Store it, then reorder from the drawing
Plan the storage when you order, not in January, and not in an empty shop unit. A worn panel or a matching new piece is quoted from the drawing on file.
Your installer works from the other side of the same night: what your installer will ask for.
Where we fit
Where we fit, and where we don't
We are a trading company. We have decorations made in China to your drawing and deliver them landed, and we pick the orders we take on.
Pieces drawn to your spaces
Arches, giant ornaments, tunnels, lit figures and photo-op structures drawn to your spaces, in your colours, or with your artwork if it is yours to use.
Paperwork worked out per order
The paperwork your mall, its insurer or the fire code official asks for is worked out with you, order by order.
A landed quote, line by line
Each step of the landing is priced on its own line, and the quote names whether we are your seller of record or buying agent. The shipping page sets out what each line of a landed quote covers.
Installing and storing stay with you
We do not install, take down, store or maintain the pieces. Your installer does that.
Where this applies
The products this guide covers
Each product page has the price drivers, the order-by calendar and the quote form for that product.
Christmas arches
Lit walk-through arches for park entrances, paths, plazas and light shows, in stars, snowflakes, hearts, gingerbread or a shape of your own. Tell us the opening to cover and what has to pass under it. The arch is built in sections that bolt together on site, and the quote covers it delivered to you.
See the arches
Giant Christmas ornaments
Lit ornament sculptures, walk-in ornaments for a photo spot, ornament stacks and plain oversized balls, each drawn to the space it will stand in. Tell us the spot and how far away people will see it. We have the piece made in China, crated in sections and quoted landed.
See giant ornaments
Christmas light tunnels
Walk-through and drive-through light tunnels for light shows, parks and zoos, made as a run of lit arches or panels that bolt together on site. Send the route, the length and what has to fit inside. We plan the sections and the crates, and quote the tunnel landed at your gate.
See the tunnelsWhere to go next
- Buying for a cityThe RFP, the specification and the order date.
- The buying calendarThe order date worked back from any install night.
- How we workSeller of record or buying agent, and who invoices you.
- Landed cost calculatorSet a landed quote beside a catalogue's delivered price.
More guides
More guides: Commercial Christmas lights and displays
GuideStarting a Christmas light installation business: what to buy, where and when
The kit an installer buys, when to order it, whether to buy from US stock or by the container from China, and what commercial clients ask for.
Read the guide
GuideHow a custom Christmas light display is made, from sketch to container
The steps from a sketch to a crated, lit steel display, and what the factory needs from you at each one.
Read the guide
GuideHow to import Christmas lights from China: the tariff line, the duty and the landed cost
The tariff line, the layers of duty, the freight and the paperwork, with the import-tax line from our own price lists.
Read the guide
Questions
Questions buyers ask
When do malls put up their Christmas decorations?
After hours, in the weeks before the season, on nights the management sets. The order date for anything made to drawing counts back from the first of those nights, through the approvals, production, the ocean leg and the customs entry.
Where do malls buy their Christmas decorations?
From a commercial decor supplier's catalogue, from a leasing provider whose package includes the design, install, take-down and storage, or from a maker who builds pieces to drawing, and often from more than one. The table of the three routes above sets them side by side.
Can a mall have a real Christmas tree inside?
The International Fire Code restricts natural cut trees in shops and malls unless the area has sprinklers (section 806.1.1), and keeps them out of exits, corridors, lobbies and vestibules (section 806.2). The building code lets a mall count as a corridor for its exits, so the fire code official decides for your building.
What will the fire marshal ask about mall decorations?
Mostly what burns and where it stands: for artificial greenery and fabric, documentation of the flame test the code names on the exact product, and for every piece, clear exits, ways to them and exit signs. For a piece made to your drawing, the paperwork is worked out with you, order by order.
Can a Santa set or a walk-in display stand in the middle of the mall?
If the management and the officials agree. Keep the mall's clear width with the queue in it, keep exits and exit signs in view, and check with the building official whether a roofed set falls under the kiosk rules (IBC section 402.6.2) before it is drawn.
Should a mall lease or buy its Christmas decorations?
Leasing puts the design, install, take-down and storage with the provider for a term. Buying means the mall owns, stores and reorders. A piece made to drawing is how a mall owns one that fits a particular space or carries its own design, and some properties lease the bulk and own a centrepiece.
Request a quote
A landed quote for your mall's decorations
Send photos of each space with a measurement in them, the pieces you have in mind and the night the lights go on. We reply within 1 business day, then come back with drawings to approve and a landed quote, each line on its own.
- Reply within 1 business day
- Landed cost, itemised
We take on the orders we can do well, and we will say so if yours isn't one of them.
