January 29, 2026 • 10 mins
Dan Casterella - CEO of American Christmas, LLC | CEO's You Should Know
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone, the Steve Dawson and welcome to this week's edition
of CEOs. You should know I am thrilled to be
joined by Dan Castarella, the CEO of American Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Dan, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Excited to have you and to learn more about you
and more about American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, we're in our peak season and I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Awesome, let's jump right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I know that you spent over twenty years in the
holiday core industry and grown alongside American Christmas. What were
some of those defining moments that helped shape that path
to becoming CEO?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I think there were a few steps in my career.
A bunch of them revolved around sales actually, But you know,
three or four years into working with the company, I
started selling and I had a client at the time
it was Talbots, and that kind of put me into
the sales world of American Christmas. And then it happened
(00:51):
again probably five years later with Cartier when I landed
that account. So every step I've grown, there's been a
big sale that's happened around it.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's awesome, and I know that probably throughout that journey.
You've worked with every single part of the business. How
did that hands on experience help influence you along the way.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, we're a service provider. Yes we sell product, but
we're a service provider and we at the core or
design firm. So understanding how things go together, how you assemble,
how you install is a big factor into selling and
growing at our organization.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Nice what originally drew you to the holidays core world? Like,
what has I draw you there in the first place,
and what's helped really keep that passion alive for all
these years?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, it goes back to when I was a young kid.
I used to decorate my house, and then in high school,
I was decorating homes to make money. It actually cutting
classes to make money decorating homes. And then I was
in college and I saw an opportunity at American Christmas
and took it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome, And I know that you have a love
for product and for creativity.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Within the holiday to core space.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
How do you maintain that innovation while keeping those traditional
clients happy with their Christmas decor.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, it's definitely a difficult thing because Christmas is tradition, absolutely,
so everyone goes back to their childhood in one way,
shape or forms. And you know, for us, yes, there's
led technology, but it's really just reviving what's been done
over the years and making it fresh and giving it
just a fresh take.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I know that part of like fostering creativity and ownership
is also having your team right and allowing your team
to be able to expand within multiple states and countries.
How have you been able to kind of keep that
innovation in creativity at the core of the company while
maintaining such a large team.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, it's it's actually becoming more difficult as we get
larger and there's more people on the team involved in
product creativity and product design. We have a committee and
it really funnels through committee and for me, I think
the more not the more people in the committee, but
the more people who come from different department have something
(03:11):
to contribute, is when we get the most value out
of the committee.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's awesome. We talked about this a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Obviously, Christmas is all about tradition and the nostalgia around
the holiday. So with your team and with pushing that innovation,
how do you continue to encourage them to have fresh
ideas every single season.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so there is buying trips that we send people on.
There's inspiration trips. I actually have a STAPH member now
in LA and all they're doing is walking around seeing decorations.
A lot of our stuff, but a lot of things
we don't do just to get ideas for the future.
But our first big buying trip will happen in March
(03:50):
of next year.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That's awesome. So I know that.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Obviously the company is known for custom holiday displays. How
do you envision america Christmas continuing to stand out from
the competitive market space.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, again, a good that's a great question, because it's
Christmas trees in Garland. I think it's the services we provide.
We just recently launched an e commerce brend and you know,
for us, it's not just about buying something online. We
want to have that personal connection. We want to have
(04:22):
someone on the phone with you to walk you through
the sale. So I think I think, yes, you can
go buy Christmas decorations anywhere, but for us, we want
the services to come with every sale. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Absolutely, Well, we're obviously here right now having the interview
in New York, and in my opinion, New York's kind
of the epicenter for a lot of I would have
to agree with decorations. But I know that outside of here,
you operate in thirty five states. How obviously you, being
based in this market, be able to continue that customization
to all those other thirty five states with that one
(04:53):
to one experiences.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, I think. I think for me, it's been easy
see over the past twenty years to grow outside of
the country outside of New York, I should say, but
it's becoming harder, most recently as it becomes more expensive
to travel, more expensive to ship. So what we're seeing is,
you know, we're seeing continued growth around the country, but
(05:18):
we're also seeing it slow down a little bit just
because of the costs to do business from afar. It's
becoming harder to.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Do absolutely, So looking ahead, I know that right now
we're in the midst of the holiday season. But what
are you excited about the most for the future of
American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, well, we are getting ready to take down soon,
but we also start our meetings now for twenty twenty six. Wow,
our first clients will confirm next week, right before Christmas,
but we u for twenty twenty six. I think we're
going to take a pause and really just focus on
how we run the business more efficiently.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It's right, So obviously lots of successes, but I'm sure
a lot along the way of your career and time
in American Christmas there might have been some challenges. What
were some of those biggest challenges you endured and what
were the some of those factors that you learned from them?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I think our challenges come around. I would say
like global situations, political situations are quite frankly mistakes we
make at a client's location. And you know, if we're
talking recently, the tariffs were a big challenge for us
h ninety eight percent of our stuff comes out of
(06:30):
Southeast Asia, and you know, I think I think what
I've learned out of all of this is that we
need to adapt. We need we can't be so stuck
in our waves. We need to adapt and we need
to be able to move quickly. And with the way
technology is moving right now, I think moving quickly is
(06:52):
going to become more more common in our world and
our industry.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Absolutely, Speaking of terrorists, I know that you work with
a lot of major supply changes, and I'm sure there's
been complexity around the sourcing and the logistics around that.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
How are you guys able to handle that this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I was actually in Asia when this first happened.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And for us, we had about sixty five percent of
our products sitting in Asia getting ready to ship. Oh
my gosh. And at that point I thought I was
going to have to burn a lot of bridges. And
in the end, it's just smart decision making. We analyzed
everything we had, we analyzed our cash flow, and we
(07:35):
kind of made a strategic plan to get our commitment
with our factory solved that product into America. But we
did it over four and a half months.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I always love to ask this question for everybody that
comes on the show. What advice would you give yourselves
twenty years ago when you knew you wanted to be
a CEO or an entrepreneur, just someone that might be
tuning in that are just getting started.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, that's a good one. That one stump me. My
advice would definitely be to myself. My advice would be
to pick up the phone sooner and take a chance.
Don't be so taken back, are so concerned about what
could happen.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Just do It's good advice, and.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I take that approach more now, And if I did
it when I was younger, I'd probably be ten years
ahead of where I am today.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Stop hesitating, stop overthinking stuff, and just.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Go for it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's great advice. So what's next for American Christmas? Any
exciting developments or expansions you're allowed to tell us?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, I think for us, our focus is New York.
We are here in New York. We love what we
do in New York, and we'll continue to grow around
the country, but our focus is going to be New
York and inventory control and really kind of adapting to
an e comm platform where we see actually a lot
(08:55):
of our clients now going to kind of get inspiration.
So I think we need to be more in the
digital forefront where we haven't been in the past.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Makes total sense.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Well, we covered a lot, but if there's one thing
that you feel like we missed that might be about
the mission of American Christmas that you want our listeners
to know.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I think I think we're Christmas all year long.
We recognize revenue over the course of an eighty day
span essentially, but we are a seasonal company that has
an operation twelve months a year. So you know, for us,
it's more about how do we get better year over
(09:36):
year and how do we improve And we're coming at
the point now where we see what we did really
well this year and we see where we failed this year.
But the good thing about our business is we get
to step back in you know, four or five weeks
and then kind of redirect and fix.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Absolutely, you get to reflect on how we evolve and
be able to grow from there.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yes, it's actually also the hardest part of it the
business because any new employee won't understand the new process
until they go through the entire twelve months.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That makes a lot of sense, Yeah, because you can't
really know it until you experience it and live and
breathe it. Right, Yes, especially for this industry, that's awesome. Well, lastly,
if there's one call to action for anyone that's tuning
in that wants to learn more about American Christmas, what
should they do?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, you could visit us at American Christmas dot com
and if you were really interested, just walk through New
York City and see most of our decorations.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Is there one landmark and most proud of this year.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
There's not one. But if you want to see the
most concient concentrated area of our work, okay, it would
be walking up Avenue of the Americas and Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Amazing. We'll definitely have to check that out. Thank you well, Dan,
thanks for being here today.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We appreciate you telling your story and for all of
us to be learning able to learn more about American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
We appreciate it, and thank you all for tuning in.
Tune in next week for next week's edition of CEOs.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You Should Know
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone, the Steve Dawson and welcome to this week's edition
of CEOs. You should know I am thrilled to be
joined by Dan Castarella, the CEO of American Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Dan, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Excited to have you and to learn more about you
and more about American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, we're in our peak season and I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Awesome, let's jump right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I know that you spent over twenty years in the
holiday core industry and grown alongside American Christmas. What were
some of those defining moments that helped shape that path
to becoming CEO?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I think there were a few steps in my career.
A bunch of them revolved around sales actually, But you know,
three or four years into working with the company, I
started selling and I had a client at the time
it was Talbots, and that kind of put me into
the sales world of American Christmas. And then it happened
(00:51):
again probably five years later with Cartier when I landed
that account. So every step I've grown, there's been a
big sale that's happened around it.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's awesome, and I know that probably throughout that journey.
You've worked with every single part of the business. How
did that hands on experience help influence you along the way.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, we're a service provider. Yes we sell product, but
we're a service provider and we at the core or
design firm. So understanding how things go together, how you assemble,
how you install is a big factor into selling and
growing at our organization.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Nice what originally drew you to the holidays core world? Like,
what has I draw you there in the first place,
and what's helped really keep that passion alive for all
these years?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, it goes back to when I was a young kid.
I used to decorate my house, and then in high school,
I was decorating homes to make money. It actually cutting
classes to make money decorating homes. And then I was
in college and I saw an opportunity at American Christmas
and took it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome, And I know that you have a love
for product and for creativity.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Within the holiday to core space.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
How do you maintain that innovation while keeping those traditional
clients happy with their Christmas decor.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, it's definitely a difficult thing because Christmas is tradition, absolutely,
so everyone goes back to their childhood in one way,
shape or forms. And you know, for us, yes, there's
led technology, but it's really just reviving what's been done
over the years and making it fresh and giving it
just a fresh take.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I know that part of like fostering creativity and ownership
is also having your team right and allowing your team
to be able to expand within multiple states and countries.
How have you been able to kind of keep that
innovation in creativity at the core of the company while
maintaining such a large team.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, it's it's actually becoming more difficult as we get
larger and there's more people on the team involved in
product creativity and product design. We have a committee and
it really funnels through committee and for me, I think
the more not the more people in the committee, but
the more people who come from different department have something
(03:11):
to contribute, is when we get the most value out
of the committee.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's awesome. We talked about this a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Obviously, Christmas is all about tradition and the nostalgia around
the holiday. So with your team and with pushing that innovation,
how do you continue to encourage them to have fresh
ideas every single season.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so there is buying trips that we send people on.
There's inspiration trips. I actually have a STAPH member now
in LA and all they're doing is walking around seeing decorations.
A lot of our stuff, but a lot of things
we don't do just to get ideas for the future.
But our first big buying trip will happen in March
(03:50):
of next year.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That's awesome. So I know that.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Obviously the company is known for custom holiday displays. How
do you envision america Christmas continuing to stand out from
the competitive market space.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, again, a good that's a great question, because it's
Christmas trees in Garland. I think it's the services we provide.
We just recently launched an e commerce brend and you know,
for us, it's not just about buying something online. We
want to have that personal connection. We want to have
(04:22):
someone on the phone with you to walk you through
the sale. So I think I think, yes, you can
go buy Christmas decorations anywhere, but for us, we want
the services to come with every sale. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Absolutely, Well, we're obviously here right now having the interview
in New York, and in my opinion, New York's kind
of the epicenter for a lot of I would have
to agree with decorations. But I know that outside of here,
you operate in thirty five states. How obviously you, being
based in this market, be able to continue that customization
to all those other thirty five states with that one
(04:53):
to one experiences.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, I think. I think for me, it's been easy
see over the past twenty years to grow outside of
the country outside of New York, I should say, but
it's becoming harder, most recently as it becomes more expensive
to travel, more expensive to ship. So what we're seeing is,
you know, we're seeing continued growth around the country, but
(05:18):
we're also seeing it slow down a little bit just
because of the costs to do business from afar. It's
becoming harder to.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Do absolutely, So looking ahead, I know that right now
we're in the midst of the holiday season. But what
are you excited about the most for the future of
American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, well, we are getting ready to take down soon,
but we also start our meetings now for twenty twenty six. Wow,
our first clients will confirm next week, right before Christmas,
but we u for twenty twenty six. I think we're
going to take a pause and really just focus on
how we run the business more efficiently.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It's right, So obviously lots of successes, but I'm sure
a lot along the way of your career and time
in American Christmas there might have been some challenges. What
were some of those biggest challenges you endured and what
were the some of those factors that you learned from them?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I think our challenges come around. I would say
like global situations, political situations are quite frankly mistakes we
make at a client's location. And you know, if we're
talking recently, the tariffs were a big challenge for us
h ninety eight percent of our stuff comes out of
(06:30):
Southeast Asia, and you know, I think I think what
I've learned out of all of this is that we
need to adapt. We need we can't be so stuck
in our waves. We need to adapt and we need
to be able to move quickly. And with the way
technology is moving right now, I think moving quickly is
(06:52):
going to become more more common in our world and
our industry.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Absolutely, Speaking of terrorists, I know that you work with
a lot of major supply changes, and I'm sure there's
been complexity around the sourcing and the logistics around that.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
How are you guys able to handle that this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I was actually in Asia when this first happened.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And for us, we had about sixty five percent of
our products sitting in Asia getting ready to ship. Oh
my gosh. And at that point I thought I was
going to have to burn a lot of bridges. And
in the end, it's just smart decision making. We analyzed
everything we had, we analyzed our cash flow, and we
(07:35):
kind of made a strategic plan to get our commitment
with our factory solved that product into America. But we
did it over four and a half months.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I always love to ask this question for everybody that
comes on the show. What advice would you give yourselves
twenty years ago when you knew you wanted to be
a CEO or an entrepreneur, just someone that might be
tuning in that are just getting started.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, that's a good one. That one stump me. My
advice would definitely be to myself. My advice would be
to pick up the phone sooner and take a chance.
Don't be so taken back, are so concerned about what
could happen.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Just do It's good advice, and.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I take that approach more now, And if I did
it when I was younger, I'd probably be ten years
ahead of where I am today.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Stop hesitating, stop overthinking stuff, and just.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Go for it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's great advice. So what's next for American Christmas? Any
exciting developments or expansions you're allowed to tell us?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, I think for us, our focus is New York.
We are here in New York. We love what we
do in New York, and we'll continue to grow around
the country, but our focus is going to be New
York and inventory control and really kind of adapting to
an e comm platform where we see actually a lot
(08:55):
of our clients now going to kind of get inspiration.
So I think we need to be more in the
digital forefront where we haven't been in the past.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Makes total sense.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Well, we covered a lot, but if there's one thing
that you feel like we missed that might be about
the mission of American Christmas that you want our listeners
to know.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I think I think we're Christmas all year long.
We recognize revenue over the course of an eighty day
span essentially, but we are a seasonal company that has
an operation twelve months a year. So you know, for us,
it's more about how do we get better year over
(09:36):
year and how do we improve And we're coming at
the point now where we see what we did really
well this year and we see where we failed this year.
But the good thing about our business is we get
to step back in you know, four or five weeks
and then kind of redirect and fix.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Absolutely, you get to reflect on how we evolve and
be able to grow from there.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yes, it's actually also the hardest part of it the
business because any new employee won't understand the new process
until they go through the entire twelve months.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That makes a lot of sense, Yeah, because you can't
really know it until you experience it and live and
breathe it. Right, Yes, especially for this industry, that's awesome. Well, lastly,
if there's one call to action for anyone that's tuning
in that wants to learn more about American Christmas, what
should they do?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, you could visit us at American Christmas dot com
and if you were really interested, just walk through New
York City and see most of our decorations.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Is there one landmark and most proud of this year.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
There's not one. But if you want to see the
most concient concentrated area of our work, okay, it would
be walking up Avenue of the Americas and Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Amazing. We'll definitely have to check that out. Thank you well, Dan,
thanks for being here today.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We appreciate you telling your story and for all of
us to be learning able to learn more about American Christmas.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
We appreciate it, and thank you all for tuning in.
Tune in next week for next week's edition of CEOs.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You Should Know
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