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How does Christmas light leasing work?
With a Christmas light lease, the installer supplies the lights for the season instead of selling them to you. One seasonal price covers the design, the lights, the install, fixes if anything goes out, takedown in January and storage until next year. You never test strands, climb a ladder or keep bins of lights in the garage.
What is a Christmas light lease?
A Christmas light lease means the installer supplies the lights for the season, hangs them, keeps them working, takes them down and stores them. You pay one seasonal price and get a lit house, without a single strand ending up in your garage.
It is the difference between a service and a product. You are not paying for a box of bulbs. You are paying to have the roofline lit from install day through the holidays, with someone else responsible for every piece of it.
What does a seasonal lease include?
A good lease covers the whole season, from the first picture of your house to the last clip coming off in January. Here is how ours works, step by step.
- Design. You send your address. We trace your roofline from satellite imagery and text back a picture of your home lit up, with a custom quote, in about 15 minutes. No site visit, no sales call.
- Booking. You approve the quote and pick an install date. A 50% deposit holds that date, and it is fully refundable up to 14 days before install.
- Lights cut to fit. We use commercial-grade LED lights cut to the length of each run on your roof, so there is no extra strand bunched at a corner and no plug dangling off a gutter.
- Install. Clips grip the gutter edge and the shingle line. No nails, staples or screws, ever. The display goes on a timer.
- Fixes all season. If any section goes out, text or call and we fix it within 48 hours, free.
- Takedown in January. The crew comes back, removes every clip by hand and takes the lights with them.
- Storage. Everything is stored until next season. Nothing to coil, label or find room for.
Why are the lights supplied instead of sold?
Because supplying the lights is what makes the guarantees possible. When we hang only lights we supply, we know their grade, their age and how they were stored, so we can stand behind every bulb.
We can guarantee every bulb
Mixed strands from different stores and different years fail in different ways. One set of commercial-grade lights, handled by one crew, is something we can promise to fix within 48 hours.
Colors match year to year
Warm white from one batch can look yellow next to warm white from another. Supplying the lights lets us keep your color consistent across the whole roofline and from one season to the next.
Lights are cut to your house
Store strands come in fixed lengths, so the extra gets wrapped, tucked or left hanging. Cut-to-fit lines end where your roof ends, which is most of what makes a professional display look clean from the street.
You never deal with the leftovers
No tangled bins, no half-dead strands in the attic, no guessing which set still works. In January the lights leave with us.
How does leasing compare to doing it yourself every year?
Leasing trades a yearly project for a yearly appointment. The table below shows where the work goes.
| Doing it yourself each year | Seasonal lease | |
|---|---|---|
| Design | You plan it on the ladder | A picture of your house lit up before you book |
| Lights | You shop for them, test them and replace what died since last year | Supplied, commercial-grade, cut to fit |
| Ladder work | You, usually on a cold weekend | Our crew |
| Burned-out sections | You find the bad bulb or swap the strand | Fixed within 48 hours, free |
| Takedown | You, in January weather | Included, in January |
| Storage | Bins in the garage or attic | We store everything |
How much time does DIY really take?
For most homes, a DIY roofline is two separate weekends: one in November to put it up and one in January to take it down. That is before the evening in December when one run goes dark and you are back on the ladder with a flashlight.
The hidden time is in the prep. Strands have to be pulled out of storage, untangled, plugged in and tested on the driveway before anything goes up. Clips break. Extension cords come up short. A trip to the store in the middle of the job is normal.
For a closer look at that trade, see our article on professional installation versus DIY.
Is the ladder work really a big deal?
Yes, and it is the main reason many people stop doing their lights themselves. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 14,900 people were treated in emergency rooms for holiday decorating injuries from Nov. 1, 2022 to Jan. 31, 2023, about 160 a day, and nearly half involved falls.
Ladder rules exist for a reason. OSHA's guidance says an extension ladder used to reach a roof should extend at least 3 feet above the edge, with the base set out one foot for every four feet of height, and you should keep three points of contact while climbing (OSHA). Most homeowners do not have a ladder tall enough to do that safely on a two-story gable.
What about burned-out strands and storage?
Strands that sat in a hot attic or a damp garage for eleven months are the ones that fail first. A cracked socket or a pinched wire can take out a whole run, and finding it means testing bulb by bulb.
With a lease, that problem belongs to the installer. We handle and store the lights between seasons, and if a section goes out on your house, we come fix it.
What decides the price of a lease?
A lease is priced by the job, not by the box of lights. The main factors are how many feet of roofline you light, how tall the home is and how easy the roof is to reach, and what you add, like wrapped trees, bushes, wreaths or pathway lights. Our guide to what drives the price walks through each one.
Our pricing changes on Nov 15 this season, and install dates are first come, first served. If you are still deciding, read when to book before the November dates fill.
How do you start a lease with us?
We design, hang, fix, take down and store everything, and it is all in one seasonal price. Send your address and we will text you a picture of your home lit up with a custom quote in about 15 minutes. If you are outside our current area, send your address anyway and we will tell you straight whether we can reach you.
Common questions
Do I keep the lights at the end of the season?
No. The lights go back with the crew in January and are stored until next season. That is what lets us match colors and guarantee every bulb the following year.
Can I change my design next year?
Yes. Tell us before you book next season and we will send a new mockup. If you keep the same design, the plan is already done.
Do I need to store anything between seasons?
No. Clips, lights and cords all leave with the crew in January. Your garage stays as it was.
Can renters lease Christmas lights?
Yes, with the homeowner's written OK. Send it along with your address when you ask for a quote.
Can you lease lights to me and let me hang them?
No. We only hang lights we supply, because the guarantees depend on our crew doing the install and the takedown.