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Holiday Light Pricing Guide
What installers actually charge per linear foot — by region, by service model, and with the two-story and tree-wrap adders that most bids forget. Use it to sanity-check your number before you send it.
You own the product, install, maintain, remove and store it. The recurring-revenue model.
- Per foot$8.75–$15.00
- Roofline$1,400–$2,400
- Trees (2)$440–$840
A range, not a quote. Your labor rate, insurance, storage cost and drive time decide where in the range you land.
Per-foot ranges by service model
| Model | Per foot | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Install only (customer's lights) | $3.50–$6.00 | Labor and clips. You hang what they hand you — and inherit whatever condition it's in. |
| Lease / rental program | $7.00–$12.00 | You own the product, install, maintain, remove and store it. The recurring-revenue model. |
| Sell the lights outright | $9.00–$15.00 | Customer buys commercial-grade product year one, then pays install-only in later years. |
Where these numbers come from
These are working ranges from the residential holiday lighting trade, not a survey. They assume commercial-grade LED product, a two-person insured crew, and a price that includes takedown. The regional multipliers track labor cost and what the market bears: the Midwest sits about 12% below the national middle, the West Coast about 22% above. Two-story and steep-pitch work adds roughly a quarter to the labor because ladder setup, fall protection and repositioning dominate the clock.
The most common pricing mistake is quoting install-only rates while delivering lease-program service. If you supply the product, service it mid-season, take it down and store it, you are running a lease program — price it as one. The second most common mistake is competing on price at all. Homeowners paying $1,500 for holiday lighting are buying a result, and the company that can show them that result before installation day rarely has to be the cheapest bid.
Now show them what it'll look like.
Numbers win arguments. A photoreal nighttime render of their home wins the job. Three free renders, no credit card.
Common questions
How much should I charge per foot for Christmas light installation?
Install-only on the customer's own lights runs roughly $3.50-$6 per linear foot. A lease program where you supply, install, maintain, remove and store commercial product runs $7-$12 per foot. Selling the product outright in year one runs $9-$15. Multiply by about 1.25 for two-story access, and adjust for your region.
Why do lease programs charge more per foot than install-only?
Because the price covers far more than the hang. You're carrying the cost of commercial-grade product, custom cutting and fitting, mid-season service calls, takedown, and climate-controlled storage with the job labeled and boxed for next year. Spread over a typical three-to-five-year customer, the lease model earns more per house and holds the customer.
What's a fair minimum for a Christmas light job?
Most established companies set a minimum somewhere between $600 and $1,200. Below that, drive time, ladder setup, takedown and storage eat the margin. A minimum also filters out the price shoppers who will call three competitors over $50.
How much do installers charge to wrap a tree?
$220-$420 per tree for a standard residential tree, driven by trunk diameter, branch count and how high you're going. Large specimen trees wrapped to the upper canopy are quoted individually and routinely run $800 or more.
Should I charge extra for takedown?
Build it in rather than billing it separately. Takedown is typically 15-20% of the install cost in labor, and customers who see it as a separate line item negotiate it away or do it themselves badly, damaging your product. Quote one all-in seasonal price.
How do I justify a higher price than the cheapest bid?
Show the outcome, not the line items. A photorealistic nighttime mockup of their actual house next to a competitor's verbal description ends most price conversations, because the customer is no longer comparing two numbers — they're comparing a result to a promise.