What Christmas Light Installation Costs in 2026
Updated July 2026
Most homeowners hiring a professional for the first time expect a number around $200. The actual national average for a basic residential install is closer to $425, and a straightforward two-story roofline commonly runs $600 to $1,200 for the season.
That gap causes a lot of sticker shock, so it’s worth understanding what you’re actually buying.
What the price usually includes
A full-service seasonal package from an established company typically covers five things:
- The lights themselves. Commercial-grade LED C9s or minis, custom-cut to your roofline. These stay the company’s property.
- Design and installation. A crew, ladders or lifts, clips, and timers.
- Mid-season maintenance. If a run goes dark in December, they come fix it.
- Takedown. Usually January, sometimes into early February.
- Storage. They keep your custom-cut strands until next year.
When people compare a $700 quote to a $250 quote and conclude the first company is gouging them, the difference is almost always that the $250 company is doing exactly one of these five things: hanging lights you already own.
Typical price ranges
| Job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Single-story roofline, lights supplied | $350 – $700 |
| Two-story roofline, lights supplied | $600 – $1,200 |
| Roofline plus trees, bushes, walkway | $900 – $2,500 |
| Large custom or three-story home | $2,500 – $6,000+ |
| Labor only, you own the lights | $200 – $600 |
| Takedown alone, if billed separately | $100 – $300 |
Most companies quote per linear foot, commonly $2 to $6 per foot installed, with the range driven by height and access.
What actually drives your number up
Height and pitch. This is the big one. A single-story ranch is ladder work. A three-story elevation with a 12/12 pitch requires lifts, harnesses, and more crew hours, and the price reflects genuine risk, not markup.
Linear footage. Obvious, but people underestimate it. A house that looks modest from the street can have 250 feet of trimmable roofline once you count dormers, garages, and returns.
Trees. Wrapping a mature oak is slow, skilled work. A single large tree can add $300 to $800 by itself. This is the line item most likely to surprise you.
Access. Steep landscaping, tight side yards, gates, and second-story sections reachable only over a pool all add hours.
Timing. Booking in late November, when everyone is full, does not get you a discount. Booking in September sometimes does.
How to compare quotes that look nothing alike
Ask every company the same four questions and write the answers in a column next to each price:
- Are the lights included, and do I own them after?
- Is takedown included, and in what date window?
- Is mid-season repair included?
- What exactly is being lit — get it itemized, not “the house.”
Once those four are normalized, quotes that looked 3x apart usually land within 20% of each other. The remaining spread is where you actually negotiate.
A note on the cheapest quote
The lowest bidder in this trade is very often a crew doing this for the first time this season. That’s not automatically disqualifying — plenty of good landscapers do fine work on a simple roofline. But on a steep, tall, or complicated house, inexperience shows up as sagging lines, visible cords, damaged shingles, and in the worst case, an uninsured injury on your property.
Match the company to the difficulty of the house.