It's past 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead.

In the Dining Room, staff members whisk away linen and silver after Chef Arnaud Berthelier's four-course feast. Guests finish drinks in the lobby lounge, where embers wink out in the fireplace.

Pouya Dianat/Staff Photographer (ENLARGE)

Theresa Williams (right) and Dacia Urban squeeze a tree for the club level of the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead into an elevator.

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Theresa Williams stands on a ladder near the front entrance, covered in glitter. Her workday has just begun.

Over the next several hours, Williams, the hotel's floral manager, will lead a three-woman team to deck the halls of the venerable hotel. A landmark at the axis of the posh Lenox triangle, the Ritz prides itself on an overnight transformation from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It's up to Williams — in the job for two months — to make sure every light twinkles, every wreath hangs evenly, every bough on the roughly 20 artificial trees going up throughout the hotel is fluffed to perfection.

"There's a lot of pressure on Theresa," says Dacia Urban, one of two friends Williams has tapped to spend the night arranging a forest of garland and nearly half a mile of ribbon. Dozens of arrangements, wreaths, poinsettias and table toppers are headed for destinations throughout the main and Club levels.

The clock in the lobby chimes, signaling the march toward midnight. Williams stands back to eye the 12-foot tree that will greet guests in the main lobby.

"We have to get it all set by morning," she says.

Midnight

Diane Noble, the other helper for the evening, smooths duct tape over cords as Urban and Williams fish out red silk magnolia and hydrangea blossoms from a cardboard box.

Hotel guests Rose and David Steed watch in awe. They live nearby and have made Thanksgiving at the Ritz — which sits across the street from tony Phipps Plaza in one direction and Lenox Square in another — their annual tradition. A favorite part of a Thanksgiving night stay is the quick switch to Christmas.

"It's amazing that overnight it's done," Rose Steed says. "It's Thanksgiving, and then suddenly it's Christmas."

The Steeds head to their room as Williams appraises the tree. Despite her sophisticated red-metallic theme featuring artsy butterflies, her goal is simple. When people see the tree, she wants them to imagine their own presents tucked beneath it.

"I want them to feel like they're at home," she says.

1 a.m.

The lounge has emptied, and servers head out after a long and busy Thanksgiving. Williams and her crew enter with boxes of garland for the banister.

"Here come the elves!" says server Kim Shaner-Kearney.

Williams arranges small teal trees and peacock-blue poinsettia blooms along the lobby lounge mantle while Urban and Noble unroll garland. All three women are from New York, where they met, and now live in Douglasville. They carpooled over after each celebrated Thanksgiving with their families.

"My 10-year-old was like, 'Where are you going?'" Noble says. "I said, 'I'm going to decorate the Ritz-Carlton.'"

As a child, Urban's family waited until Christmas Eve to trim the tree, then she and her brother would crawl under it to wait for Santa. Sleep never came easy when every sound might have been a reindeer hoof. Somehow St. Nick would creep in during the night and they'd awake to Christmas all around them.

"It was very exciting for us as kids," she says.

It's the sort of delight Urban hopes the trio will pull off for Ritz guests as they race against the clock.

"If just one person says, 'Oh, it's so beautiful,' it was well worth it," she says.

2 a.m.

Williams stations a tree beside the lobby lounge piano and says a little prayer: "I just hope the lights work."

She and her husband, Brian, moved south three years ago after visiting friends and deciding they liked it here. He landed a job as maintenance manager at a distribution warehouse. Williams spotted a job in the Ritz's floral department in the classifieds.

"I was blessed by that, for sure," says Williams, who got her first florist job in high school. Two months ago, the hotel's former floral manager decided to move on. Williams stressed over taking the promotion just eight weeks before the biggest decoration job of the year.

"This year I have to remember every single spot," she says. Sinking down onto the stairs, she frowns at the tree next to the piano. Sure, the lights work, but now the red ornaments clash with the teal and peacock mantle.

"Do you have a blue-green tree?" Urban asks.

"No, but I have blue-green ornaments," Williams says.

Within minutes they're yanking off the red ones to swap in teal. Williams stands up too fast, and lists a little.

"I'm starting to bump into the walls," she says. "This isn't a good sign."

3 a.m.

Trouble's brewing on the 18th floor — the Ritz's Club Level. The Club Level lounge offers refreshments throughout the day in more rarified surroundings than lobby areas. But the wreaths don't seem to want to hang right, and now the top of the tree that'll brighten this exclusive haven has snapped after too much arranging.

"It's OK; we'll fix it," Williams says as the top wobbles. She darts for the elevators as Urban and Noble try to open boxes, just steps from where guests are sleeping.

"Quiet!" Urban whispers at the squawk of duct tape.

"Sorry!" Noble whispers back.

Williams secures the tree, but realizes she's forgotten a few other things.

"Darn it, I guess I have to go back downstairs," she says, but takes a seat instead. "I have to sit down for a minute. I just wish I had three more hours before people start coming down.

"But honestly, I don't know if I could do three more hours."

With the Club Level lounge wreaths hanging straight and tree standing tall, the women head back downstairs.

Time to check balky lights, hang garland along the staircase, set out table runners, hang a few more wreaths.

The lobby clock chimes. Is it really 5 a.m.? Already?

"It's crunch time," Williams says.

5 a.m.

The first guests through the lobby, likely bent on early-bird shopping discounts, don't dawdle.

Suzanne Bishop and sons McClain, 12, and Mills, 15, are back in the lobby at 5:30 a.m., having struck bargain-hunting gold at Phipps.

On their way out for the second time, they stop to marvel at the newly festooned lobby.

"Last night we went to sleep and there was none of this," said Bishop, visiting with her family from St. Simons Island. "This morning we woke up and it was Christmas."

As the clock strikes 6 a.m., Williams and her team start thinking about sleep.

They have rooms at the Ritz to rest, and plan to knock out a few final items, such as meeting room trees, on Friday night. For now, it's time to haul away boxes, extension cords and other evidence.

"It's supposed to be like Santa's elves," Williams says.

The effect has worked on hotel guest Lynn Youngblood, from Easley, S.C.

"I wish my house was like this, I could just wake up and it would be done," she says.

Nearby, two shoppers on their way out pause for a moment. One woman takes it all in, and with three words, unknowingly pronounces Williams a success: "Santa's been here," she says.