Across the pond outdoor Christmas lighting is serious business. But now one of the most experienced festive teams around is illuminating the British market with their Stateside expertise. Sarah Welsh found out more…

Nick Bolton, CEO of festive lighting company American Christmas, is in reflective mood when we speak on a Friday afternoon, British time.

Calling from New York City where it’s early in the morning, sitting across the street from the iconic Macy’s department store with its impressive Christmas lights and big red bows, Nick is pondering on a statement that many have run by him in his two decades of working in the festive decorations field.

“I hear it all the time: ‘Don’t the Americans do Christmas lighting really well.’ But there’s no reason why we can’t bring that same look and feel to British homes,” Nick says. “The fact is that we’re a few years behind the US, and I can’t really explain why – but that’s what American Christmas is here to do.”

“They’ve also decorated Highgrove and Clarence House, and, memorably, one of Steven Spielberg’s homes”

American Christmas is one of the companies owned by Nick – who originally hails from Liverpool, the city to which he’s returned – and his wife Sarah. Although strictly speaking they’re new to the wholesale market, they’ve been manufacturing beautiful festive lighting for two decades. And this January they’ll be showcasing their carefully curated product range along with the team at Harrogate Christmas & Gift.

Nick and Sarah also own another company, The Christmas Decorators, that they franchised back in the early 2000s and now there are 50 different franchises across the UK. That business specialises in providing a luxury decorative service for residential and commercial clients, and they’ve certainly worked for some big names. Think the Rooneys, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne and Claridge’s Hotel. 

They’ve also decorated Highgrove and Clarence House, and, memorably, one of Steven Spielberg’s homes – although the team didn’t know who the mansion belonged to at first.

“I got chatting with the housekeeper,” Nick explains. “It was a really big, beautiful home, almost like a hotel. But let’s get the story straight, it’s not like Steven called me!”

Nick is not a name-dropper at all, and during our conversation is very keen to make clear that American Christmas is very much a separate brand.

“It’s American Christmas we’re taking to Harrogate and I’m here to speak about,” he says, frankly. “What we do is all about helping people in Britain to create the Home Alone Christmas house, those incredible seasonal images from the States that we’ve grown up with. Brits do Christmas lighting quite well, but we want to ensure they do it really well!”

American Christmas manufacture the biggest selling festive lights in America. Beautifully tailored to fit each home, it’s a completely different ethos to buying a set of British lights, which – as Nick says – you generally get out of the box and hope they fit the space.

“It’s all about a little screw-in bulb, the C9,” Nick says. “We sell them in every colour of the rainbow, and the cable comes in either black or white to suit all guttering. A 10m string comes with 32 bulbs, but you can keep on adding to them – up to 140 feet – and you can cut them to fit a space.

“Then you can take the off cuts and reconnect them if you like. Essentially this is lighting that you can make work for your whole house.

“We manufacture the core products in our factory in China and we’ve been working with them for 20 years. We did a soft launch in the UK in 2023 which went down really well, and in 2024 we stocked the lights in garden centres, hardware stores and other retailers and they sold out. We did around 400,000 of just C9 sales alone.”

One of the other products they’ll be bringing to Harrogate is the larger ‘jumbo C9’ lighting, which is more of a novelty product and perfect for bigger displays, alongside pre lit connectable garlands. But Nick and Sarah have deliberately kept their product range small and specialised. 

“We don’t want to just saturate the market,” Nick says. “We recognised this key gap in the market and wanted to make it possible for UK buyers to create the American lighting effect, but there is scope for considered expansion, possibly next year.”

For now, Nick is focused on Christmas & Gift which is a crucial show for the company to start off 2025 with. “We visited in 2024 and were pleasantly surprised in terms of the show’s traction. It was very busy with a great atmosphere and an impressive buyer turnout.

“We’re sure the show is going to be even better this January and we can’t wait to connect with customers.”

For more information visit: www.americanchristmas.co.uk