Christmas is just days away and Summit County businesses and governments are in full holiday swing with lights, decorations, new seasonal employees and in some cases, extended holiday hours.

While all this decking — not to mention staffing — the halls for the holidays can be expensive, many in both the public and private sectors say Christmas is an investment with an excellent rate of return, both in revenue and holiday cheer.

Ken Nelson, owner of Briar Rose and two other local restaurants, is a veteran of the Summit County Christmas season madness. For him, plans for the holidays begin as early as August or September when he begins putting in wine orders. As the snow starts falling and ski season approaches, the real work begins. Restaurants preparing for the holidays face huge expenses, including hiring and training new staff members, advertising, decorations and big food and wine orders, said Nelson, president of the Breckenridge Restaurant Association.

Nelson said he has to budget for orders of steak that can run him $4,000 and wine shipments costing as much as $10,000.

But when the season gets under way, the Christmas investment pays off, often tripling business and keeping restaurants busy with a rush of customers lasting several weeks.

“You go from zero to 60,” Nelson said.

The return on holiday investments isn't only financial. Nelson said he sees his customers' spirit of celebration rubbing off on himself and his staff members even as they handle big crowds and the occasional kitchen equipment malfunction.

The retail community and local governments see similar trends; Christmas means big investments and big rewards.

The Outlets at Silverthorne will put a third of its annual budget into the holiday season through events, advertising and extended hours, but the week between Christmas and New Year's will bring in enough business to rival peak summer times, according to spokeswoman Brenda Naaktgeboren.

The towns of Dillon and Silverthorne, which each invest several thousand dollars in holiday lighting, events and advertising, last year watched sales tax revenues climb by hundreds of thousands of dollars from November to December.

“December is our largest producing month, no matter what,” Silverthorne finance director Donna Braun said.

Stepping it up in 2010

This year many local businesses have increased efforts to make the 2010 holiday season a success.

“There's no doubt that independent businesses throughout the county have beefed up efforts to highlight their offerings and create exciting reasons to visit,” Katie Roberts, executive director of the Summit Independent Business Alliance said in an e-mail. “Whether that's with a special holiday menu, in-store activities and events, gorgeous decorations and participation in festive, holiday-centric events put on by the various towns, as well as the Summit Independent Business Alliance.”

In Breckenridge, retail merchants launched a holiday window decorating contest this year to kick off the holiday shopping season, while the Outlets are piloting a new Outlet Shopping Express service to transport shoppers to the stores from other towns. Many businesses are also participating in the alliance's Summit Unchained punch card program to encourage customers to support local businesses, Roberts said.

Some local governments are also stepping up Christmas investments.

The Town of Frisco doubled its holiday budget to an estimated $100,000 this year to pay for holiday advertising, Wassail days events, decorations and lots of new lights. The holiday expenditures represent approximately 30 percent of the town's annual marketing budget.

“The decorations for the town were doubled essentially in a perspective of launching ourselves into the winter market,” Frisco Marketing Director Suzanne Lifgren said . “(The holiday season) sets a pulse for the winter and if we can get out there in front of people at the very beginning of the winter we expect them to make more return trips.”

Frisco officials hope to see lodging increase this year with the larger investment in holiday decorations and events and give guests a memorable holiday experience that will draw them back to the town in the future.

The Town of Breckenridge, another big holiday spender, did some additional lighting this year in the Blue River Plaza at the center of town, paid for primarily with sponsorships from local businesses.

“The whole concept was to help add to the holiday feel around town,” Breckenridge spokeswoman Kim DiLallo said.

Breckenridge will invest between 50 and 75 man hours putting up and taking down garland and an additional 120 hours on lighting the Christmas tree in the Blue River Plaza. Breckenridge also split the $11,000 tab for the New Year's fireworks display with the Breckenridge Ski Resort. The Breckenridge Resort Chamber, a private organization funded in part through the town's marketing budget, spent $9,500 on event programming, animation and marketing for the month of December this year.

In Breckenridge at least, the increased investments in the holiday season seem to be paying off. Lodging bookings in the town for the first half of December were up from the same time last year and forecasted to stay above 2009 numbers through this week, according to data from the BRC.