The bright wares of 4-Seasons Lighted Yard Displays, a small Garfield, Wash.-based business that peddles its yard decorations here annually at trade shows, recently appeared on Japanese television.


Amy DeGon, who owns 4-Seasons with her husband, David, says a Seattle-based business called Across the Pacific had bought several decorations from 4-Seasons this fall to send to a customer in Northern Japan who wanted them for a hotel and restaurant there. The DeGons later were told that the inaugural lighting of those decorations made the television news and a local newspaper there.


Last week, 4-Seasons sent other decorationsa blue reindeer and a couple of silver snowflakesby barge to Anchorage, Alaska, to a company there called Once in a Blue Moose.


We certainly have had some interesting requests lately, DeGon says.


Except for those two requests, the family-operated business, which soon will be relocating to Fairfield, Wash., about 25 miles southeast of Spokane, mainly sells its yard decorations in the Northwest.


Although the company sells lighted yard decorations year-roundfrom Valentines Day cupids to Halloween jack-o-lanternssome of its best sellers include a 3 1/2-foot-tall snowman, a 4-foot-diameter wreath, a pair of Christmas bells stretching 6 feet wide, and a 6-foot-tall Santa Claus.


Christmas definitely is our busiest season, DeGon says, adding that few people decorate the outside of their homes for holidays other than at Christmas, and marketing such decorations at other times of the year is difficult. The Christmas holiday season typically begins in September, when the DeGons begin attending various Christmas shows, including two shows here.


Coming up with a pattern for each new design is the hardest part of the job, DeGon says. Still, the production of each decoration also is labor intensive, with each one taking between three and six hours to complete.


To make the decorations, David DeGon, who is a heavy-diesel mechanic and a farmer by trade, builds the frames by twisting and welding pieces of 3/8th-inch-thick rebar around one of several jigs hes developed.


The frames next are primed so they wont rust, and then handed off to DeGons wife, who works with two part-time employees to attach to the framesby handcustom-made plastic clips, strands of lights, and color-coordinated garland.


4-Seasons typically uses multiple strands of 50 to 100 miniature lights on each decoration.


Each individual light on the strand is snapped into a plastic clip to keep it in place. The miniature light bulbs are changed by hand so the colors fit the pattern of each decoration, Amy DeGon says.


For instance, 4-Seasons 4 1/2-foot by 4-foot nativity decoration mostly is outlined with strands of gold lights, but the lights that outline Mary and Joseph are purple and blue, respectively.


The companys most detailed decoration, a 6-foot Santa, requires a total of 200 red, white, green, and gold lights, she says.


Once the decorations are completed, they typically are hand delivered by the DeGons, who also help customers set them up and ensure that theyre working properly.


4-Seasons produces about 600 decorations a year, which typically sell for between $40 and $160, although a set of three train cars that stretch a total of about 22 1/2 feet sells for $650. The yard decorations typically are attached to chain-link fences or fence posts, or to patios and decks.


DeGon declines to disclose the decoration ventures annual sales, but says that the business alone currently doesnt support the DeGon family. In addition to operating 4-Seasons, Amy DeGon, who is the mother of 20-month-old twin boys, works part time as a school nurse for the Palouse towns of Rosalia, Wash., and Steptoe, Wash., and fills in occasionally as a postal carrier in nearby Oakesdale, while her husband also farms and operates a farm-equipment rental business in Fairfield.


Stepping into holiday lights


The DeGons decided to get into the decoration-making business about four years ago, when they bought the Garfield-based business from some family friends, Ed and Karen Mitzimberg. The Mitzimbergs, who also own a welding manufacturing business there, started making yard decorations as a hobby at least 10 years ago, Amy DeGon says.


Eventually, demand for the decorations began to grow, and Ed Mitzimberg opened a shop and a showroom in Garfield where the decorations could be made and displayed. In 1997, to help meet the growing demand, the DeGons helped the Mitzimbergs fill orders for decorations.


In early 1998, the DeGons bought the business, and since then have added new designs each year, have expanded the reach of the business, and have made what they consider to be improvements to the construction of the decorations, such as adding the plastic clips to hold the lights in place.


Ed and Karen pretty much had saturated the market in Whitman County by the time we bought the business, Amy DeGon says.


To broaden the business reach, the DeGons have displayed their decorations at various Christmas shows throughout Washington state.


The first year they operated the business, they attended four shows, including the Tacoma Food & Gift Festival; Christmas in Seattle; Christmas Memories, a show held here in Spokane; and Jim Custer Enterprises Inc.s Christmas craft show held at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds.


They attended seven shows this year, including the Tacoma, Seattle, and Jim Custer shows, as well as the Spokane Home Ideas Show, a show in the Tri-Cities, one in Portland, and one in Salt Lake City.


In 2001, the DeGons hope to begin selling their decorations on the Internet, but first they have to determine the best way to ship them safely and cost effectively, Amy DeGon says.


Shes concerned that the miniature lights might not ship well, and if one breaks, an entire strand wont work until the broken light is found and replaced. 4-Seasons is considering switching to larger, 5-watt, C7 light bulbs rather than the miniature lights because the larger bulbs can be shipped separately and installed by the customer, she says.


Also, if one of those bulbs breaks, the rest of the lights in the strand will continue to work.


Early next year, the couple plans to move the business from Garfield to their home in Fairfield.


Since 1998, the DeGons have continued to work out of 4-Seasons shop in Garfield and have kept the businesss showroom open there.


At first, the DeGons also used the showroom to sell crafts on consignment from other artists. Now, the showroom contains just 4-Seasons decorations and is open for viewing by appointment only, DeGon says.


4-Seasons also designs and sells what it calls pole displays, which are Christmas-light decorations that are affixed to poles that line a towns main street. Such decorations now line the main streets of the southern Spokane County towns of Latah and Waverly, as well as Genesee and Nezperce, Idaho. Some of the companys decorations also adorn the roof of the Palouse Mall in Moscow, Idaho, DeGon says.


Next year, 4-Seasons hopes to land additional pole-display and commercial decoration orders, she says.


We would really like to do more commercial and town decorations, DeGon says. Lots of times, people arent ready to think about Christmas decorations until about November, but businesses and towns budget for that kind of thing. That means we could meet with them year-round.