Stringing Up the Lights Brightens Metro Homes

By Alex Cameron, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma -- While this may be "black" Friday for retailers, for one particular business it's red, green, blue, orange, and mostly white Friday.

If you're in the business of putting up residential Christmas lights, Friday was busy.

"Right now is crunch time for us," said Brian Bates of Christmas Creations. "It's our typical 16-hour days right now."

Bates and his crewmates were at it early Friday morning, expecting to spend probably five or six hours wrapping up Christmas preparations at the Schoppa home.

"Our Christmas trees and everything are already up inside the house," Doug Schoppa said. "This is our last bit...to get ready for Christmas is the outside lights."

Christmas Creations has three crews, and the owner, Richard Cox, said they're fully booked.

"We got stuff on the south side, we do a lot of stuff up in Edmond," Cox said. "It's just hectic trying to stay up with everybody."

It's another sign Oklahoma's economy isn't hurting too bad.

The owner of Christmas Creations said their work will pretty much stop around December 10, then on January 2, they'll be back out there, taking all the lights down.