The latest Christmas trend in competitive Southern California is hiring professionals to put up outdoor light displays on homes.

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For hundreds -- or perhaps thousands -- of dollars, homeowners can have someone else buy the lights, store them during the off-season and then put them up for the holidays, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Chris and Jill Koreivo discovered when they moved to Long Beach that a simple strand of lights around the door did not cut it. They hired a company called Crocodile to create a 3,000-light Tropical Christmas Paradise.

"Our neighbors hired a different company to put up their lights, and they were admiring ours," Chris Koreivo said. "It's not a competition, although I do feel our light guy is better than theirs."

Joshua Barclay, like many Christmas light professionals, washes windows most of the year. Barclay has so much Christmas light business this year, he hired a helper for the season.