From the Bronx to Broadway: The Magic of American Christmas with Dan Casteralla

In this festive episode of I Live Here Westchester, host James Jockle sits down with Dan Casteralla, a 20+ year veteran and CEO of American Christmas—a company behind some of New York City’s most iconic holiday displays. From humble beginnings as a Bronx-based plant company to a national leader in commercial Christmas décor, American Christmas is synonymous with seasonal joy—and it all happens from their massive headquarters right here in Mount Vernon.

What You'll Hear About in This Episode:

• The origin story of American Christmas and Dan’s journey from seasonal worker to senior executive
• How the company evolved after pivotal moments like 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic
• Behind-the-scenes of those jaw-dropping overnight installations across Manhattan
• How creativity meets logistics in a business that moves 300+ containers of joy annually
• The secret to highlighting architecture without overpowering it during the holidays
• The engineering and patents that make the magic possible
• The heartwarming success of Mount Vernon’s own Holiday Lane charity initiative
• The rise of Halloween as the next big decorating holiday (yes, really!)
• And a sneak peek into Christmas in July and what’s next for seasonal celebrations in Westchester

✨ Whether you’re a Westchester local, a lover of holiday magic, or just curious how NYC transforms overnight every November, this conversation offers a rare look into the business of joy.

Follow American Christmas and check out their local initiatives like Holiday Lane—where all proceeds go to support charities in Mount Vernon.

#ILiveHereWestchester #AmericanChristmas #MountVernonNY #HolidayLane #NYCHolidays #ChristmasInJuly #BuzzsproutPodcast #WestchesterLocal

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Transcript

James Jockle (00:00)
Dan, first and foremost, so nice to meet you and thank you for joining us at I Live Here Westchester.

Dan (00:04)
Thanks for having me.

James Jockle (00:06)
Yeah, so let's start at the beginning. A long history with American Christmas. know, give us the origin story.

Dan (00:15)
Yeah, so we have been around for over 50 years. We started as a plant company. And for myself, I've been with the company for over 20 years. I started working in a seasonal role. But we're a commercial Christmas decorating company, and we specialize in high-scale decorations around New York City.

James Jockle (00:37)
So

you started when you were 19, is that correct?

Dan (00:41)
That is correct, yes it is.

James Jockle (00:42)
So

when you think back to the early days, what lessons or experiences have you had over time that influenced your leadership today?

Dan (00:52)
Yeah, I think a lot of it was just the ground up, working on site, being a part of these installs. For me, it was a lot of fun to kind of get to know ⁓ our clients and the jobs, and I take all of that into every decision I make.

James Jockle (01:11)
So, you know, what would you say the pivotal moment was where American Christmas transitioned from a regional decor company into, you know, a national holiday powerhouse?

Dan (01:23)
Yeah, that happened in the early 2000s. It was one of the first times we saw big growth. And then I would say again in 2012, and then again in 2020 actually. Those were like three times when we saw ourselves kind of grow and expand rapidly.

James Jockle (01:48)
What were the catalysts there? was going on? Everybody wanted Christmas bigger and better?

Dan (01:55)
Yeah,

in the early 2000s it was after 9-11. ⁓ They wanted, our clients in New York wanted to do more, wanted to expand, wanted to bring happiness.

In 2012, I think it was just organic. A lot of things just clicked. But in 2020, we made a strategic decision to really grow around the country. And we put salespeople around the country. Where at that point, we were just doing a lot of work in New York. In 2020, we decided let's grow around the country.

And it turned out to be a good year to make that pivot because of COVID. When New York was closed, a lot of the rest of the country was open. So we saw our New York business shrink that year, but our business around the country really grew as people were trying to get people outside and make them happy.

James Jockle (02:46)
And we've seen so much more outside displays and people wanting to get out. And I think, you know, even during that COVID time, going to, you know, these kind of festival of lights where you could drive through with the family and be isolated. just, that seemed to be something that popped up maybe seven years ago and now is everywhere.

Dan (03:00)
Yep.

Yeah, it popped up, it grew quickly, it died off a little bit, and now it's stabilized. So the ones that are around are funded very well. do, they have a good following.

We were in that world during the COVID days. even did a, we did about three or four events, three main ones. ⁓ And we got out of it because we said, you know what, it's better for us to just supply the decorations to those people running it. But the specialists run it, we're the product people. ⁓ But yes, it's still alive and well, ⁓ but a less flooded market.

James Jockle (03:50)
And for those listening who may not realize it, your company is behind some of the most iconic Christmas visuals in New York City. ⁓ We're here in Westchester, most of us jump on Metro North, take the train. Perhaps could you walk us through some of those iconic creations you've delivered and what is that creative process from concept? And I want to talk about installation in a minute because I always find the city.

Fascinating around that time where people are just descending and it's transformed and it feels overnight. But what is that creative process?

Dan (04:28)
Yes, could be anywhere from 16 to 17 months to 6 or 7 days depending on the client. ⁓ Our big clients, to say our 7 figure clients who are doing really elaborate displays tend to tend to have the first conversations in September and October for the following Christmas. ⁓

And it entails design, engineering, ⁓ production planning, product sourcing. A lot of our projects could have materials on it from two or three different countries. ⁓ It really kind of runs the variety as it relates to timeframes around how.

things take. I think the sweet spot is probably about 60 days to develop a job properly. You know if we're working on a program now and we presented last week a final proposal and renderings you know it could take three or four weeks to get a confirmation. So it's usually about a month of work and then a month to hear back to get a confirmation.

James Jockle (05:43)
So

what is the approach? Do you look at a building or a storefront or whatnot? Like is a blank canvas? Is the client bringing in a theme or are they just going, Dan, tell us what to do?

Dan (05:57)
Yeah, I think it really depends on the client. I know our retailers tend to come more theme prepared and more design goal orientated.

is our corporate clients, Class A office buildings are more, you're the designer, put it in, you can tell us what you wanna do and just present us everything. In both situations, there's a collaboration. ⁓ But.

the retail clients tend to be more hands on and the corporate clients tend to let us dictate more of that design. That's a great question though, but the number one thing, sorry to cut you off, the number one thing that we keep in mind is we like to highlight the architecture. The architecture is in our mind the backdrop. So we never want to compete with the architecture. We want to highlight it.

James Jockle (06:40)
Is there, yeah.

Dan (07:00)
want to accent it and we ⁓ want to work around it.

James Jockle (07:04)
Yeah, it's funny that you say that because I work at a hundred park ⁓ right off, ⁓ right outside of Grand Central. And there is just a magnificent tree that just fills the lobby and, know, but you're right. It doesn't overtake the space. just, it complements it. And it's just, you know, you walk out of the elevators and you're like, my God, it's Christmas.

Dan (07:11)
Yep, I know it.

Yes,

and it comes overnight. ⁓

James Jockle (07:28)
Yeah, I

want to get to that. All right, so tell me about that because I've gone outside. It's November. You're leading up to Thanksgiving. I can imagine you have more than one project. But yet, it seems like snap, that tree is in my office building. There's lights outside on the actual organic trees. What does that happen? And how are you amassing the teams to?

Dan (07:42)
Yeah.

James Jockle (07:58)
bring a vision so quickly to market because it seems like you got a really short window.

Dan (08:04)
Yeah, we do. we're about 55 to 60 days out from our first install. ⁓ And for us, it starts the first week of September and it runs through...

December 8th and I would say the majority of the installs happen overnight ⁓ or after hours and we're in Manhattan specifically we're doing about 450 installs over you know nine week period. ⁓ Some installs could be three people and be

you know, four hours while others could be 60 people and five nights. And then we have a few that are 20 people and run 40 nights.

James Jockle (09:04)
Is there a designer there or is it just, here's the plan, here's the material, go.

Dan (09:09)
It's all hands on

deck that time of year. have designers, project managers, account managers. ⁓ We'll even put the finance team out on location if we needed the head count. They don't like that, but they would go.

James Jockle (09:26)
Got it.

So I have to ask, do you still like Christmas?

Dan (09:31)
I...

Yeah, I- Yes, I do like- There's two young kids, so... They enjoy it.

James Jockle (09:38)
It must be amazing to bring the kids to one of your creations and just be like, you maybe you don't care what daddy does all day, but I did that.

Dan (09:48)
Yeah,

yes, it's very enjoyable. Even when they come to the warehouse, we have a blast when they're walking through our warehouse in Mount Vernon.

James Jockle (09:59)
my God, know, Dad Santa. mean, how do you beat that?

Dan (10:02)
Yeah. Yeah, I had that issue at school. I had a teacher

one year call me and say, you need to stop telling your kids you work for Santa. And I was like, it's not so easy. ⁓

James Jockle (10:10)
So is there

one project or display that really stands out to you that is either particularly meaningful or just it was a bear?

Dan (10:25)
Yeah, no, don't, I never really highlight one project. I think for me it's more about the season. ⁓

COVID, I'll go back to COVID, that was a difficult time to put jobs up. You couldn't get into buildings, you couldn't do the work you needed to do because of regulations, so that was difficult. Our projects on an individual basis are never an issue, but when you put, know, a crowd.

New York, 450 locations around the country, another 400 locations when you put all that together and you're working 24 hours a day, then it becomes a bear.

James Jockle (11:07)
So talk about technology a little bit, right? I even the stuff I, Jim, can go at Home Depot and buy has changed. And it's no longer one bulb goes out, they all go out. You ⁓ got lasers, you got LEDs, you got all kinds of stuff. How do you stay fresh? And how much are you refreshing every year?

Dan (11:20)
Yep.

Yeah, a lot of our clients sign multi-year contracts, so a lot of them want the same look year over year. ⁓

It's we're always we have a product development group within the company. We own a factory in the Philippines that we are constantly pushing new product out of. So from our from our perspective, ⁓ product development is very important. The tech has been driving a lot out of the industry lately, and it's a great thing and I love it. But I would much rather be developing

new finishes and looks and ⁓ new materials for our line versus just focusing on the tech side. The tech is great. think in our world though, it's somewhat limited. The lights can already change colors and do what they have to do. ⁓ new finishes and materials are important to me.

James Jockle (12:37)
And how much, I'm just out of curiosity, how much innovation has come from you and your designers of we want to achieve this, but I don't have a product and therefore we need to innovate and bring something to market.

Dan (12:51)
Yeah, I would say a fair amount. A ⁓ fair amount of what we do ⁓ is new to market. ⁓

And it's not necessarily stuff you would notice. It could be the electrical harness that sits on a tree. It could be an engineered anchor system for a 50-foot tree. In the past, the wires had to go out, but now we engineer it to go down. No one ever sees that, but there's a whole engineering side to the company that...

that it comes into a part of these big installs that we do.

James Jockle (13:31)
Anything

patented? Anything going to end up on the space shuttle if they ever bring that back?

Dan (13:36)
Yeah, definitely

not the space shuttle, we do have a handful of patents that we are proud of.

James Jockle (13:42)
That's amazing. So I'm going to ask one last question here, and then I want to kind of talk about Mount Vernon and Holladay Lane. But just because supply chain became a term that everybody in the freaking world started to know a couple of years ago between the ports and all that other stuff, how do you manage that? You have 800 installations. You've got an incredibly small window of execution. I'm just curious.

Dan (13:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, people always ask me, what do you do all year?

And I'll be back in Asia at some point before the end of the summer and we'll be finalizing prototypes and samples and products and orders for 2026. you know, the process starts over the summer for the following Christmas as it relates to product. ⁓ Our orders, first orders get placed in September. Our first containers ship in December or January for the following Christmas. And

They'll keep coming in monthly until the end of October, early November actually. So it's really a 12 month cycle. And we were moving about 300 containers a year of holiday decorations, which is relatively small when you look at Home Depot moving 2,500 containers of Christmas trees and only Christmas trees. But... ⁓

We're more of the low volume, high dollar product. That's what we like to focus on. Higher quality, higher level of detail. ⁓ And for us, really, in the supply chain world, we have a whole team that deals with it. ⁓

Ironically with everything that's going on in the supply chain right now, we're seeing a lot of similarities to 2020 when everything shut down. Freight's about to get more expensive. There's less freight lines out there now than there were six months ago because everyone stopped shipping. ⁓ yeah, I'm interested to see where can go. It's always a fun challenge, talking about the high chain.

James Jockle (15:41)
Hmm.

Well,

I think it's fair to say you can't put a price on joy. And, you know, so let's talk about Mount Vernon. Let's bring it back. You know, you know, obviously I think the roots were in the Bronx and in the floral and now you're in Mount Vernon. And so, so why Mount Vernon? Was it just because of proximity to the Bronx needed more space? You know, I, know, obviously that predated you, but

Dan (16:02)
No.

That is correct. Yes, that is correct.

Yeah, in

2010, we were operating out of five buildings that we rented. 2009, we were operating out of five buildings that we rented. And in 2010, we realized we wanted to consolidate to one space and we couldn't find anything. And the opportunity came up in Mount Vernon to buy a building that was 110,000 square feet. And at that time,

It was more of the space than we ever needed. But it made sense to do the deal and buy it. We were comfortable moving out of the Bronx.

because we're only like six tenths of a mile away from the most northern subway stop. So what we did was we bought a cargo van and we passenger van and we moved our, we had our staff take the subway to train, train to the last subway stop. Then we just did a shuttle every morning back and forth, two runs in the morning and then two runs at the end of the day. ⁓

how we got everyone back and forth for a bunch of years. And it worked out well. We're in close proximity to three different major highways to get in and out of the city. Again, we have the subway line. only 10 minutes from the bridges, so it made sense to be here. And it made sense. Westchester has been a good home to us.

James Jockle (17:32)
Wow, that's great.

That's amazing. you know, let's talk about Holiday Lane. It's a big local hit. And so, you know, what was the inspiration to open up, you know, your warehouse, you know, to the public? And how has that response, you know, from the community really shaped the event?

Dan (17:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, it was more about doing something that the company could get behind from a Charred Ball mindset.

I didn't just want to have to write checks and make donations. I wanted the staff to get involved. I wanted the company to be involved. I wanted the name to mean something to the community too. So when we started Holiday Lane, the idea was we're in Mount Vernon, New York, and a lot of people don't know about us. Let's get people to be aware of us. And at the exact same time, let's raise money for charity by having them come to

building and seeing the awesome displays that we have out for our clients. So we decided we were going to sell tickets to our showroom and on some dates we'd have Santa Claus in the showroom and you can come you buy a ticket and a hundred percent of that ticket goes to three local Mount Vernon charities.

James Jockle (19:20)
That's amazing. now

talk about, you know, because it is the summer, ⁓ tell us about Christmas in July. ⁓ What is the initiative? What is the event? And why is this so meaningful to you?

Dan (19:24)
Thank

Yeah, we have, you know, we're a multinational company. I've got 40 sister companies around the world that are part of MK Illumination, who is the majority stakeholder in American Christmas. And...

What we do is we hold sample sales every December where we're selling used inventory, new inventory, our samples. And what we decided this year was we were gonna try it out in Christmas and July. We noticed now that we've done this for four years that people are following us on social media and we figured, you know what, let's do a Christmas and July sale and see what happens. ⁓

it for three days in July and I'm very excited about it. There'll be some new product there that we've never shown before.

James Jockle (20:29)
That's awesome. And do you see opportunities to expand the idea of offseason giving or seasonal programming in Westchester?

Dan (20:40)
Yeah, I think around the consumer and the residential home, absolutely. We're seeing a lot of growth there. While we don't do residential work right now, ⁓ we work with a lot of people who do and we sell to a lot of people who do, but we're seeing a lot around...

Summer, seeing a lot of Fourth of July people want Fourth of July decorations for the front of the house. ⁓ Easter is a growing holiday and the big hit is Halloween, more Halloween than ever. ⁓ Three years ago, we moved five containers of Halloween and this year we're almost 50 containers of Halloween decorations.

James Jockle (21:23)
So I agree with you in terms of the trend, just even around here, like I'm in Portchester, Halloween, it's starting to get over the top, right? So I didn't even think to ask you about other holidays. that, when we think of American Christmas, do we think America in terms of the holidays? how should people be thinking about you in that regard?

Dan (21:33)
over

Yeah, our name really ties us to Christmas. And that's who we are, but we will most certainly get involved with the other holidays. ⁓ It's a small percentage of when you look at Christmas sales globally, those holidays. ⁓ But from our perspective, Halloween will be a big one, Easter and something along the summer lines.

James Jockle (22:13)
Amazing, amazing. Well, know, Dan, ⁓ I want to thank you so much for your time today sharing, you know, the American Christmas story. ⁓ I think, you know, for me, just learning about different elements of the business are awesome, but also the work you're doing in terms of raising money for charities and the local community. ⁓ You know, I think everybody knows the name Christmas, but everybody needs to know the name American Christmas.

Dan (22:41)
Thank you, I appreciate it. And thanks for having me.

James Jockle (22:45)
No,

it was my pleasure.