I Cannot Do Without Candlesticks in the Windows

Answers to media questions, November 2024.

You decorate cities and department stores. How are you getting on with this year's Christmas decoration at home? What does it look like, or what will it look like? Do you stick to tradition, or do you change your decorations?

I usually do not change my decorations much. I prefer a pleasant atmosphere and elegance, so I do not change the colour scheme of my interior even for Christmas. Although the simplicity I favour and a light interior would probably allow it, for years I have essentially combined red with white or silver. Now and then I try a small decoration from our new products, but I like tradition and a welcoming feel. I cannot do without candlesticks in the windows; usually, once the Old Town Square has been lit, I bring them down from the attic in the evening and begin my Advent.

Would you add a tip or recommendation on how to use light chains and decorations indoors and outdoors to create the right festive atmosphere?

Above all, everything must suit the intention, the possibilities, the space… I certainly recommend looking for less usual places too, safely of course, which can architecturally enhance the welcoming feel of a home. Indoors, besides the usual decoration, I like strings of lights in a clear glass vase or in a stainless-steel bowl, little stars on windowsills, floral arrangements with lights, hanging decorations in the windows… Outdoors we most often use icicle lights and curtain lights, but it is now also common to echo the decoration of public spaces in home gardens, for example with light balls, animals, angels, snowflakes and stars. Terraces and conservatories, in turn, offer room for original arrangements, decorated flowerpots and the like.

Which Christmas lights or decorations from Decoled have people liked best? What new products have you added to your range this year? What should one watch out for when buying lights for the home?

Among the popular and sought-after items are certainly our modular systems for outdoor use with high water protection, but also others from the Hobby range. Solar and battery-powered lights are popular too, and certainly not only the Christmas candles, which we make from wax and which look very convincing. This year we have extended the range with light lanterns and other small decorations, including a variety of embellishments and accessories. In any case, it is wise to choose safely for the home from specialist suppliers. In the longer term it pays to buy better-quality products that last longer and so offset their seemingly higher purchase cost.

Please advise how to use light chains, for example, throughout the year. It is a pity for them to be stored in a box for most of it.

Light chains, and light decoration in general, are used all year round in some latitudes, for example at celebrations or in summer garden decoration, and from some systems one can create original arrangements in vases, or simply use them to decorate gazebos, conservatories and the like.

Decoled takes care of the pre-Christmas decoration of many cities. What does it all involve? How many people are needed, and from which professions?

We decorate, or prepare decoration for, towns and cities, but also shopping centres and other spaces. The decoration is original and comes from our own workshop, apart from the lighting systems. Usually, following the brief, we first work out the character of the decoration, and our artists, graphic designers and designers give it form in a design; then we draw it up technically for production and subsequently install it. We deliver complex decoration with further craft work too, such as working with wood, fabric, paper and so on. The arrangement itself and the animation by our technicians are part of completing the decoration.

The tree on Prague's Old Town Square, which you decorated, appeared in 2020 among the 21 most beautiful trees in the world. What did it look like? Will you be decorating Christmas trees this year too?

It was precisely during covid, when the markets were cancelled, that we tried to meet the request for a sober and sensitive decoration, and at last it matched my idea of how the Old Town Square should be decorated. Thanks to this, the established concept was slightly changed, in a way that suits the square and enhances its dignity and history. The motif of traditional Christmas stars, or rather keeping one simple motif, becomes Prague as a unique historic city, and with a slight modification the concept will be kept this year too. I think a certain confirmation of the concept also came in this year's award, when, according to an American website, Prague became the most beautiful Christmas city in the world.

Christmas decorations appeared in shopping centres as early as November. How long do you prepare them for a particular shopping centre?

Making some exclusive decoration can take months. Of course, decorations that the shopping centres rent for, say, 2–3 years with some variation prevail, and then the preparation is shorter. Preparing the logistics is demanding too, especially abroad; we decorate even by the Atlantic, and the installation itself depends on the character and complexity of the decoration. We have installed even the largest shopping centre in 3 days, smaller ones in 1 day, but if there are complications the installation can take longer.

In one interview you said that anything can be lit up, from a piano to a refuse truck. What have you decorated so far? What do you remember most fondly?

Trams, buses, cable cars, treetop trails, boats, even a refuse truck, and the surfaces of ponds or rivers.

The list of interesting decorations would probably be long, but of course I am pleased by an original and interesting decoration, such as this year's beautiful 5 m Sisi in Gödöllő, Hungary; I am pleased by any new successful decoration, and I await with a certain impatience another completely new one – a large illuminated sign for a city.

The untried concept of the Světla vyprávějí (Lights Tell Stories) light parks was a challenge and a step into the unknown. Where will the parks be this year and what will they tell?

We have already turned that step into the unknown into a familiar one in Prague, but it is always a question how far the thematic concept will attract visitors, and so, besides Prague's Žluté lázně, Ostrava, Pardubice and Ratměřice, exhibitions have been added in the Czech Republic in Příbram, Brno and Český Krumlov, and abroad in Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, France, Ireland and Slovenia. All our light exhibitions are set in some environment and themed accordingly. This year in Prague it brings space adventures closer; in Brno at Špilberk the lights tell of life in the Middle Ages; in Ostrava of the future; in Pardubice of life at the chateau and the symbols of Pardubice; and so on. We would like not only to tell stories with light but also to connect.