How much does it cost to pay someone to put up Christmas lights?

Our 2026 first-installation rates are $6.50/ft before October 12, $8/ft October 12–November 4, $11/ft November 5–Thanksgiving (November 26), and $14/ft after Thanksgiving. Installation, takedown and storage are included. Your 50% deposit locks the applicable rate. Plus sales tax where applicable.

Do you provide the lights?

Yes. We supply and own the commercial-grade Wintergreen C9 LED lights; you pay for the season. Choose warm white, pure white, red, green, blue, multicolor, red and white, or red and green.

Does the price include takedown and storage?

Yes. Installation, January takedown and storage are included. We test and label the lights before storing them. Reinstallation of our stored lights is $4.50/ft, with takedown and storage included.

How to Hang Christmas Lights on Your House Like a Pro

Before the ladder: measure, plan the power, buy strands that fit

Walk the house and measure every run you want lit: the eaves, the garage, the porch and each gable. Gables measure longer than they look, since each one is two sloped runs; a 24-foot-wide gable adds about 30 feet. A satellite measurement is a fine start, but tape the runs you'll actually hang.

Then plan the power. Find the outdoor outlet each run will start from and make sure it's GFCI protected: either it has its own TEST and RESET buttons, or it's covered by a GFCI outlet or breaker elsewhere, and pressing TEST there makes the outdoor outlet go dead. Lights run away from the plug, so the outlet decides where each run begins. Lighting trees and shrubs too? They have their own math: Christmas lights on trees and bushes.

Buy factory-made sets in lengths that cover each run, and never cut, splice or re-plug one to make it fit; tuck a little extra away at the end instead. In Washington, L&I treats custom cut-to-fit lighting as licensed electrical work, with permits and inspections, while unaltered off-the-shelf sets covered by UL 588 need no electrical license.

Lights labeled for outdoor use. A 25-light C9 set at 12-inch spacing covers 25 feet.
One clip per bulb, plus a few spares.
An outdoor timer or smart plug.
Extension cords rated for outdoor use and for the load.
A ladder tall enough for the highest run (more on that below).

Christmas light clips: the right one for gutters, shingles and metal

Clips are what make a roofline look professional: every bulb held at the same angle, nothing sagging, nothing punched through the gutter or shingles. A lighting retailer's clip guide opens by telling you to put away the staple gun and hammer, and it's right.

Surface	Clip	How it sits	Notes
Gutter	All-in-one clip	Slides over the front lip, flat tab against the back; bulbs point straight out	Also holds mini and icicle lights
Shingle edge (eave or rake)	All-in-one clip or shingle tab	Tab slides under the first shingle; bulbs stand upright	Slide it in; don't lift the shingle
Gutter guard	Plastic clip on the gutter lip, or shingle clips	Depends on the guard; see the next section	Check the guard maker's warranty terms
Steel edge or metal roof	Magnetic clip	Holds on any metal a magnet sticks to, upright or straight out	Aluminum won't hold a magnet; test first

Hanging the roofline, step by step

Installers hang a roofline in a set order, and most of the work happens on the ground.

Peaks. Hang a gable as one run, up one rake edge and down the other, starting on the side nearest the outlet. Clip every bulb on the slope so the line stays straight to the peak, and move the ladder rather than lean out to reach it.
Test every set on the ground and replace any that won't light.
Clip on the ground: snap a clip onto every bulb or socket, set for the surface it's going on (straight out for gutters, upright for shingles).
Start at the outlet. Put the plug end at the power and hang away from it, so each set plugs into the one before.
Set the ladder for the stretch in front of you, with its base out from the wall by a quarter of its extended length (1 foot for every 4 feet of ladder). Carry the strand on a tool belt or have it handed up, and keep your belt buckle between the rails. Climb down and move the ladder rather than reaching.
Seat a clip at every bulb, all at the same angle, with the strand straight between clips and no loops or sags.
Plug into the timer, set it for dusk to 11 pm, and look at the house from the street before the ladder goes away.

Christmas lights on gutter guards, and eaves with no gutters

Gutter guards change the clip, and the guard maker's rules come first, because some guards carry their own warranties.

Hooded one-piece guards. LeafGuard's guidance is to use plastic clips that hang from, or slide over, the gutter's front crimped edge; never to hang lights from the hood itself, because that changes how the gutter works; and never to use metal hangers or tape, which void its finish warranty.
Mesh and screen guards. LeafFilter suggests temporary shingle clips on the roof edge, which it says shouldn't void a roof warranty, or all-in-one clips holding C9s under the gutter, or adhesive clips made for the gutter surface.
No gutters. Clip to the shingle edge instead: an all-in-one clip or shingle tab slides under the first course and holds each bulb upright along the eave.
Steel drip edge or a metal roof. Magnetic clips hold on any metal a magnet sticks to. Aluminum drip edge, common on newer roofs, won't hold one, so test with a magnet first.

Two-story houses and roof peaks: when to stop

Most of the risk in holiday lighting is the ladder. The CPSC counts about 160 Christmas decorating injuries a day during the season, nearly half of them falls; in its 2023 holiday season (November 2022 through January 2023), about 14,900 people were treated in emergency rooms for holiday decorating injuries.

The American Ladder Institute's rules cover most of what goes wrong:

Use a ladder long enough that you never stand above the highest standing level marked on its label. To step onto a roof, it has to reach 1 to 3 feet above the eave and be tied off at the top.
Set the base out from the wall by a quarter of the ladder's extended length, on firm, level ground.
Keep three points of contact and nothing in your hands; a tool belt, a helper or a line carries the lights up.
Keep your belt buckle between the rails, and move the ladder rather than reach.
No ladders in high winds or storms, and nothing slippery at the base or where the top rests.

No ladder: hanging lights from the ground

On a single-story eave, a light-hanging pole does the job from the ground. It grips a standard plastic clip; you slide the clip under a shingle or onto the gutter lip, then release it and move to the next bulb. LeafFilter's how-to notes it takes some trial and error. Pre-clip the whole strand first, and work from the outlet outward exactly as you would from a ladder.

Power: outdoor outlets, GFCIs and timers

Plug outdoor lights only into a GFCI-protected outlet or a portable GFCI, as the CPSC advises. The Electrical Safety Foundation lists outdoor receptacles among the places GFCIs are required.
Test the GFCI before you plug in: press TEST and the power should go off; press RESET and it should come back. If either doesn't work, ESFI says the GFCI should be replaced, and that's an electrician's job.
A GFCI shuts the power off when there's a ground fault, which can happen when equipment gets wet. If it trips in the rain, reset it once. If it trips again, unplug the lights and find the wet connection or damaged set rather than resetting over and over.
Use extension cords rated for the job, and keep plug connections off the ground.
Put everything on a timer set for dusk to 11 pm. The CPSC says to switch decorations off when you go to bed or leave the house, and a timer does it every night.
No outdoor outlet where you need one? A new receptacle is licensed electrical work. ESFI's advice is to have a qualified electrician install GFCI protection where code requires it.

Taking them down without pulling on the gutters

Our seasonal takedowns run January 2–15. Doing it yourself, pick a dry day and reverse the install:

Unplug everything at the outlet first.
Unclip bulb by bulb from the ladder. Pulling a strand off from the ground drags every clip along the gutter lip or shingle edge.
Leave the clips on the strand if you'll hang the same runs next year; it skips the slowest part of the job.
Coil each run loosely or wind it on a reel, and label it with where it goes: garage eave, left gable, porch.
Test before storing, and throw out any set with cracked sockets or frayed wire.
Store the strands dry, in a closed bin.

DIY vs hiring it out: time, risk and cost

Doing it yourself costs the lights, the clips, a timer and cords, plus two sessions on the ladder: up in the fall and down in January. Hiring it out costs more in the first year and none of your weekend.

Cost. Our 2026 first-installation rate is $6.50–$14 per foot, depending on when you pay the 50% deposit. Installation, takedown and storage are included. Reinstallation of our stored lights is $4.50 per foot. We charge by the foot: simple, honest, no hidden fees. Your written quote spells out everything before any work starts.
Time. Our installers hang a 150-foot ranch in about two hours. Allow longer for a first DIY attempt, plus the January trip.
Risk. The ladder, per the CPSC numbers above.
The other route. If you're done with ladders for good, permanent lighting is installed once and stays up. Our 2026 first-installation rate is $6.50–$14 per foot, depending on when you pay the 50% deposit. Installation, takedown and storage are included. Reinstallation of our stored lights is $4.50 per foot. Permanent vs seasonal lights compares the two.

What it takes	Doing it yourself	Our seasonal installation
Lights	Buy outdoor-rated sets and store them all year	Commercial-grade Wintergreen faceted C9 LED bulbs, one color of your choice
Clips	About $14 per 100 at retail (September 2026)	A clip on every bulb, no staples, no nails, no zip ties on gutters
Timer	Buy one and set it	Timer or smart plug set for dusk to 11pm
Ladder work	Two sessions: up in the fall, down in January	Installed October 15 to December 10. January takedown on the date agreed in your quote
Storage	Your garage	Testing, labeling and storage until next season
Price	Lights, clips, timer and cords, plus your time	Priced by the foot · No hidden fees. Later seasons are a re-hang of the same layout

A seasonal quote for your roofline

Our 2026 first-installation rate is $6.50–$14 per foot, depending on when you pay the 50% deposit. Installation, takedown and storage are included. Reinstallation of our stored lights is $4.50 per foot.

We supply and own the seasonal lights. Choose your roofline and color scheme, then request a free on-site measure. Your written quote confirms the actual footage, scope, tax and installation date. Paying the 50% deposit locks the rate, even when the installation falls in a later price window.

We guarantee a fix within 48 hours for our lights during the season, weather permitting. January takedown is planned for January 2–15 on the date agreed in the quote. We test, label and store the lights until next season. Extra services and customer-supplied lights need separate confirmation.

Sources & further reading

Research originally checked September 26, 2026. Product figures and utility examples are dated research, not a quote for your installation. Follow current product labels and check the original source for updates.

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How to hang Christmas lights on your house: the installer's method, clip by clip