Christmas is always a festive time in Sedona. And thanks to a unanimous decision by the Sedona City Council, it will soon be even merrier.

Council approved a three-year rental agreement with MK Illuminations for holiday decorations in the amount of $283,046.29, which includes delivery and installation. The city will then have the option of purchasing the decoration for $1 after the three-year agreement is complete.  The price includes installation in 2020 and 2021 as well. After that the city will have to pay to have it done. In the meantime, the city has agreed to store the decorations following this year’s holiday season.

Since 2013, the Sedona Parks and Recreation Department has been responsible for decorating the city during December for the holiday season. Decorations and events during this time have taken on many iterations and been displayed in many different areas through trial and error, public feedback, and experience. “The decorations are going to be gorgeous and will abso­lutely get people’s attention,” Parks and Recreation Manager Rachel Murdoch said the day after the meeting. “We have ideas of where we would like them to go, and they will be in the city’s right-of-way but we still need to reach out to busi­ness owners and ask for permission to plug in for electricity.

That has not been a problem in the past and I hope they are supportive again this year and appreciate the attention it will bring to their business front.” Mudoch said she feel’s the city is getting a good bang for its buck.  “Owning the features after three years will be huge,” she said. “Then a large portion of that money can be spent else­where. We will always need some money for installation and refurbishing but that is to be expected.”  In order to fit within the city’s allotted budget for decora­tions, Murdoch said the $283,046 has been spread evenly over the next three years. The most expensive decoration, at just over $14,000, will be a custom 30-foot-high struc­tural tree, which is filled with lighted spheres and wrapped with a red ribbon.

This will not replace the annual tree lighting in Uptown. The Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tlaquepaque will again be hosting that popular event.  In 2018, believing in the benefits of having quality decora­tions in Uptown, the Uptown Parking Advisory Committee recommended that $40,000 be allocated from the Uptown paid parking funds to supplement the budgeted amount the city already had to spend on holiday decorations, a city report states.  For 2019, the committee increased its support to $80,000. Murdoch’s department now has $100,000 to commit to “creating a beautiful display of holiday lights for community to enjoy and visitors to travel to see.”