The Mall of America is decorating for the holidays, when about 120,000 visitors a day pass through its doors between Black Friday and New Year's. But decorating the 4.2-million-square-foot space is no small task, partly because the decorations themselves are huge.
There are:
• Two giant trees in the mall's rotunda. Each one is 44 feet tall and 22 feet in diameter, has 385 branches, and holds 32,000 LED lights and 60 strobe lights.
• 15 giant ball ornaments ranging from 5 to 8 feet in diameter and weighing 200 to 300 pounds.
• 50 miles of LED lights to be strung.
• 200 smaller artificial trees.
It takes:
• One month to decorate the mall for the holidays.
• Five workers more than an hour to hang each of the giant ball ornaments.
• 10 decorators, a construction firm and the mall's maintenance department to put up all the decorations.
What…:
• Is different this year : A new Santa display with a new color scheme that includes champagne, silver, blue and green.
• Does decorating the mall cost: Not disclosed.
• Is the timetable for planning next year's holiday decorations: Work began right after Halloween.
Steve Alexander
