The Greek who lights up Christmas around the world

His constructions adorn the most emblematic buildings and the most famous squares and, in fact, this year, the first illuminated tree is his creation, which allows someone to explore it since you can enter it and take a festive walk. The light tree with the cross sections, shops and cafes inside was installed a few days ago in Belgium.

"It is a very tall illuminated tree, over 25 meters high, and the special thing is that it has large openings in the structure and people not only see it, but also enter it, move at different levels, cross the corridors and as they climb the tree they also pass through the bridges of the shopping mall that literally cross the tree horizontally. When they ordered it from us, we were impressed with the idea. It was truly innovative and its construction ultimately justified us all as it is the first illuminated treehouse with an entire shopping mall inside," explains the owner of the lighting company, speaking to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency.

The months and days before Christmas are "his days and months" and, as Mr. Paleochorinos notes, most orders are placed a long time ago and for some of the constructions, everyone worked in the factory day and night to have time to deliver them.

Spain decorates the storm struck Valencia with bright Angels

Mr. Paleochorinos characterizes "the presence in Spain is very dynamic during the holidays" which traditionally, as he says, loves decoration and among European cities, has been, in recent years, the protagonist in orders for Christmas decorations, with Madrid and Barcelona bathed in light. The people in charge are even decorating the long-suffering Valencia this year - as much as possible - with bright angels, which they had ordered before the major disasters, looking for rays of optimism and thus wanting to give some light to the dark landscape. Spain is a country that puts its festive decorations almost everywhere: from the largest bustling square to the smallest picturesque village.

Santa Claus in shorts and the Cinderella fairy tale with lights

However, there are also special orders, as in the case of Australia. Where Christmas and the New Year are celebrated during a heat wave, Santa Claus throws off his winter clothes and has a completely different outfit. "You can imagine that there they don't ask for Santa Claus with his thick clothes, baggy pants, jacket and boots. There, we have built - and they received it a few days ago - a special construction with water skiing and Santa Claus in shorts and flippers, on the waves. For Miami, we built huge cars, impressive jeeps, while in Japan this year they received an entire bright fairy tale: that of the well-known Cinderella with the big carriage before it turns back into a pumpkin," says Mr. Paleochorinos, speaking to APE-MPE.

From the rubber improvised lighting to global export
Mr.'s first construction Paleochorinou was an electrical engineer as a student, about two decades ago, a time when he was making speakers and lighting systems as a hobby, until at some point a friend of his asked him for lighting for his shop window.

"I put the lights one behind the other, took a rubber hose, a watering can and created the first construction. My friend, seeing the result, told me to change the layout a little and I started the experiments, making changes and modifications until I created the first phototube, which remains my own Greek patent as I did not have the financial means to make it global”, he said.

Today, he is called the “King of Decorations” and his lights reach over eighty cities around the world: from Europe to New Zealand and South Africa and from Athens and Thessaloniki, where there are of course his constructions in the decorations -all ecological- to Beverly Hills.

“We have started a major project since 2020, according to which, after collecting the bottles and nets from the seabed, is then processed in our place and we make all our decorations from recyclable materials. When the decoration is finished, anyone who has them in their possession can return them and we can recycle them again. This way, we will all be winners