If you are heading west on the Spokane Street Viaduct and look south in the evening you are likely to see a very large lit Christmas tree. Standing approximately 80 feet tall this glowing holiday symbol near West Marginal Way is accomplishing what it was meant to: get some attention for the business that did it, Fleming's Holiday and Event Lighting(FHL). The West Seattle based business employs 30 people who are all about Christmas lighting but there's more to what they do than climb trees.

The owner, Ryan Fleming is a serial entrepreneur. At the age of 12 he got his first business idea when he saw his dad attempt to put up Christmas lights and fall off the ladder. He reasoned, "People should be able to hire someone to do that," and while it would take him a few years, he made it a reality. Before that business was formed however, after graduation from college he formed a car detailing business and shortly there after a couple of other businesses.

When he started seriously doing the lighting it was all residential but people noticed. The business grew rapidly and as it did he began to take on some commercial clients. Then that business grew to the point that Fleming and his crew found themselves doing the inside and outside lighting for Bellevue Square, Tacoma Mall and Alderwood Mall. "I'm a small businessman and I understand where I fit in society but I have big ambitions in life," Fleming said.

The tree in West Seattle was decorated by one guy, Phillip who works for FHL and it required 40 hours. That tree is lit with 192 sets of LED mini lights each 25 feet long with 50 bulbs in each string. "It's not enough," said Fleming who cautions however that you can overdo holiday lighting. "There's a fine line," he said.

"I've always wanted to decorate that tree," Fleming said and promised more lights for it are likely.

Despite the brilliance of the display the tree is actually environmentally conscious.
"The power consumption of that tree pulls the equivalent of six incandescent 65 watt bulbs," Fleming explained, "and this is the last year we are doing any incandescent lighting. Next year we are doing only LED lights for our clients. Incandescent lights use ten times more power and next year they will be illegal to use for indoor home lighting. We need to be socially responsible as a company and not use those."

Fleming is out to decorate a lot more large trees. Not for money or really for marketing, but rather to add some holiday beauty during the longest nights of the year. I'm interested in talking to people about lighting trees of that size in some key locations around the area. One he has in mind is a large Blue Spruce tree near the top of the hill as you enter West Seattle. "My goal is to try and get the person that lives right next to that, to allow me to tap into their power so that my company can decorate it. It would be really cool." He has his eyes on trees just off Hwy 520 on either side just off the bridge and any just off I-90 as well. "I want to find trees that are in cool locations that will impact hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis during the holiday season so that it spreads a little more holiday cheer to everyone. If we can see these monstrous trees decorated it would be really cool."

FHL does far more than just light up the night. They work year round offering business consulting, event, wedding, and landscape lighting, window washing/gutter cleaning/pressure washing. It's how he keeps his staff busy and keeps money coming in.

If it seems like he is a busy man that would be accurate. But when inspiration strikes he goes for it.

When he gets an idea and thinks it has merit he says, "I'll make it happen. that's my mentality. That's what I want to do. That's what I want to have in my life. I want to make things happen."