Sisters who were treated to a 'magical' Christmas by their parents and went on to build their own beautiful displays are now being paid to decorate other people's trees in preparation for the season.
Veronika Gentile, 30, and her sister Giovanna Avati, 40, grew up watching their mother Pina build an extravagant and colour coordinated Christmas tree every year - and they weren't allowed to help.
When the Melbourne-based siblings had families of their own they spent equal amount of care and time on their trees, and friends began to take note.
'Four years ago I told my husband I wanted to deck out the house for Christmas,' Veronika, who has two children, told FEMAIL.
'I started getting a lot of attention from friends, they loved my ornaments, and one of them even asked if I would set up their tree for them.'
At first the sisters did the work for free but before long they started charging $26 an hour, with the average tree taking two hours to build.
This year has been their busiest yet with the mothers building eight trees before December 1, earning approximately $416. This is enough to cover their Christmas lunch as a family.
Most of their clients are people who are simply too busy during the festive season to put up a sparkling tree.
Veronika and Giovanna - a mother-of-four - mostly use ornaments and trees that are owned by their clients, with only one person asking them to outsource budget-friendly materials.
'At the moment we've only used what people provide us. They tend to leave us a box of things and we get to work,' she said.
The designer duo have very similar tastes but Veronika does prefer the snowy white trees over the traditional green, which are Giovanna's favourite.
'It's all about positioning. For my own tree I place my ornament, stand back and figure out if it works in that space. I do the same thing for other people,' Veronika said.
They tend to steer away from tinsel and instead opt for oversized flowers and classic colours of gold, silver, red and green.
While their side hustle proved lucrative this year the stay at home mums are looking to expand into the next and might even create a Facebook page for orders should people be interested.
Their mother still puts her own tree together - without help from anyone else - and surprises her 10 grandchildren with the beautiful design.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
