Professional Christmas Light Installation Guide: Costs, Pros & Cons Explained
Dazzle the neighbors without giving up a valuable Saturday
Highlights
Professional light installers save time and stress during the holidays.
Hiring a pro can help ensure your safety during holiday decorating.
You can hire a holiday light installer, decorator, handyperson, or landscaping company.
Most holiday light installations cost between $220 and $650.
Professional Christmas light installation can save you a lot of time and energy—both precious commodities during the holiday season. And while decking the halls might be a time-honored tradition, hiring an expert is often safer and more efficient. Read on to learn who to hire to install your Christmas lights, why it's a good idea, whether to tip them, and more.
7 Benefits of Hiring a Professional Christmas Light Installer
While there are a few pros you can choose from for this job, hiring a local Christmas light installer is likely your best bet. These pros will ensure you have an experienced professional forming your design, securing lights to your home and landscaping, and verifying necessary electrical components. Here are the main advantages of hiring a Christmas light installer to put up your holiday lights.
1. Saves You Time
Making your creative Christmas decoration ideas come to life can take several hours. If you're busy preparing for holiday parties or simply prefer to use your Saturday another way, a pro can be a huge time-saver. They usually include maintenance in their package, so if a bulb or strand goes out mid-season, you won’t need to take time to fix it.
2. Reduces Stress
Instead of wrestling with tangled lights, deciding on your design, or braving the cold, a professional handles it all for you. There'll be no classic Christmas movie-style mishaps here.
3. Creates a Stunning Presentation
With clean, crisp lines and a meticulously installed display, your Christmas decorations will wow your whole neighborhood. No need for you to be out there stressing over measurements and asking family members whether the strings look even.
4. Allows for Custom Designs
You can work with your installer to make creative visions come to life. Pros design a light arrangement specific to your house features, including your landscaping, architecture, and fencing. They can also install a different display each year, offering you versatility. Plus, they already know the types of Christmas lights that will look best for your display.
Avoid the Bah-Humbug!
5. Provides Better-Quality Lights
Professionals often use commercial-grade LED lights, though some may be open to using lights you already have. A pro also ensures that you’re working with the best Christmas lights outdoors and indoors, that the bulbs are the correct wattage, and sets a timer, so your lights turn on and off appropriately.
6. Can Make Things Safer
Christmas light installers have experience climbing ladders and working on roofs, saving you from possible injury. Many professionals are bonded and insured (though you should always check with them before hiring), giving you and them peace of mind. Not only that, pros assess your electrical system to ensure your lights match your home's capabilities.
7. Includes Takedown and Storage
Pros come back after the holiday season to take down your lights and store them, so there's no need to find space in your shed, garage, or basement for boxes of holiday lights. Get quotes from at least three Christmas light installers to find the right contractor for you and learn how much hanging Christmas lights on your unique home will cost. Be sure to inform your contractor about any requirements or regulations established by an HOA or neighborhood organization.
How Much Does It Cost for Professional Christmas Light Installation?
Professional holiday light installation typically costs between $220 and $650, but that can vary based on the display and labor rates in your area. Professional contractors usually charge between $1.25 and $3 per linear foot, not including the cost of the lights.
Types of Seasonal Lighting and Decorations
There are several types of seasonal lighting and decorations that you can hire a pro to install. Here are some of the most popular types and what you need to know about each.
House and Roofline Lighting
A house and roofline lighting display is seasonal lighting that goes on the outside of your house and roof. This doesn’t include the yard or trees and might not include larger decorations that go on the roof. Most house and roofline lights consist of traditional string lights, but you might choose to add lights that project an image on the side of your house as well.
Tree and Bush Lighting
Tree and bush lighting is the type of outdoor holiday lighting display that is installed primarily on the plants in your yard. Some landscaping companies might offer this service, or you might add it to a package from a Christmas lights installer. These lights are usually configured as string lights that can be draped over shrubs and bushes.
Yard Lighting
Yard lighting includes pathway lights to outline your walkways (either in the form of rope lights or lights that stake into the ground) and other types of lights that you can use in the yard that aren’t connected to a structure. Many of these types of lights will hold their own shape and be staked into the ground or weighted to keep them stable.
Wreath and Garland
This type of lighting typically consists of string lights that are wrapped or tied to wreaths and garlands. The lights can be added before greenery is hung and then powered by extension cords on the outside of your house, or your installer might use battery-operated lights to avoid needing to plug them in.
Permanent Lighting
Permanent lighting is installed with sturdy hardware and is intended to be left up year-round but only turned on during the holiday season. With the advent of color-changing LED technology, you can match the color of your lighting to the season, making them more practical than year-round Christmas lights.
Halloween Lighting
Halloween lighting is set up for spooky festivities and can include orange, purple, or UV lights to add to your Halloween decor. It can be installed much like Christmas lights, with similar contractors offering services for these seasonal lights.
Common Packages
Some professional Christmas light installers offer their services based on the size of your property and will label their displays as “small,” “medium,” and “large.” These packages are usually based on linear feet of lights, so it’s a good idea to check with the contractor about their estimate. Other pros will offer specific display types like “animated” or “traditional,” and these will include specific types of decorations listed by the company. Categories for packages can also fall into “residential,” “landscape,” “commercial,” and “wreath and garland” that will include lights for specific areas or objects. Browsing through your contractor’s portfolio or photo gallery can give you a sense of what the packages will include.
How to Find a Professional Christmas Light Installation Company
You can hire a local holiday decorator to put up your Christmas lights, as most decorators cover indoor and outdoor decorations. Some interior designers and decorators may not do outdoor lights, though, so be sure to check when you book an initial consultation. Along with that, a handyperson can help you hang your lights as well. Ask your family and neighbors for recommendations or check out local reviews—you’re sure to find a professional who can help you create a brilliant display.
Can I DIY Hanging Christmas Lights?
Yes, you can hang Christmas lights yourself, especially if you have low rooflines, and choose a simple design. But there is a risk of injury when dealing with electricity and climbing ladders, and you should never walk on your roof, especially if it’s icy or snowy. You’ll also need certain tools and supplies to hang holiday lights, such as a ladder, extension ladder, measuring tape, light clips, zip ties, extension cords, and timers.
If you decide to decorate for the holidays yourself, be sure you hang your holiday lights safely to avoid injury and electrical issues. Ask a neighbor, partner, friend, or family member for help. Even Santa needs his elves.
Can I Hire a Landscaping Company to Hang Christmas Lights?
Yes, you can hire a landscaping company to hang your outdoor Christmas lights, as many landscapers offer snow removal and Christmas light services in the colder months. Check with local landscaping companies to see if they install holiday lights and to find out more about their pricing. While they’re at your home, you may be able to bundle in other services such as winterizing your garden or cleaning up leaves.
Other contractors who might offer outdoor Christmas light installation:
These pros often do double duty as professional holiday decorators during the season since they already have the equipment and expertise to hang holiday lights. If you’re booking them for another service before Christmas, see if they have time to tack on this job too.
How Do Professional Christmas Light Installers Put Up Lights?
Most professional Christmas light installers follow a similar process to ensure you're satisfied. This includes:
Offering a complimentary consultation at your home to discuss your needs and desires
Reviewing design plans and prices with you before signing a contract
Installing your Christmas lights (with or without you there)
Providing Christmas light maintenance and repair throughout the holiday season
Taking down your Christmas lights after the season ends
Storing your lights for next year
Do You Tip Christmas Light Installers?
You can tip your Christmas light installers 10% to 20% of the project price. Installers don’t expect a tip, though it’s always appreciated. After all, hiring someone to put up your Christmas lights frees up more of your time to make this holiday even more magical.
Alison Kasch contributed to this piece.
Frequently Asked Questions
The amount of time it takes to hang up Christmas lights varies widely based on the intricacy of the display and the size of your home. That being said, most holiday light installation jobs take between one and four hours for an average-sized home.
Permanent lights can save you big in labor costs down the line, as you’ll only need to invest in installing them once. As with regular lights, costs vary based on the display and the size of your home. Costs are similar to hanging regular lights, typically falling between $220 and $650.
The cost to have your house decorated for Christmas depends on the extent of your holiday vision. Interior decorators charge between $50 and $150 per hour on average, so if your decorations are minimal, you could pay as little as $200 for a couple of hours of decorating. Interior decorators might also bill $5 to $12 per square foot, or a flat rate of $500 to $1,300 per room. You can also pay to have your Christmas tree professionally decorated for an average of $200 to $600. Contact a local interior decorator for a specific quote.
Most contractors will include removal of your lights in the price of installation, but it’s always a good idea to double check. Storage of the lights is often also part of the package when you hire an installation professional, since you might choose to use the same lights for several years.