What a Christmas Light Hanging Service Includes, Week by Week

By Chance Sixma, Owner·9 min read·October 1, 2026

What does a Christmas light hanging service actually include?

With Castle Christmas Lights, hanging is just one part of the service. We own the lights, we cut them to your house, we hang them, we keep them running, we take them down, and we store them. You never buy a strand or a bin.

One price, the whole season

That matters because the work spreads across four months. Hired labor hangs lights for an afternoon. A full-service installer is on the hook from September to January.

If you are still comparing companies, the vetting questions live in our guide on how to choose a Christmas light installer near you.

• Design mockup drawn on a photo of your house
• Commercial-grade LED lights we supply and custom cut
• Install by an insured crew, no screws or staples
• Timers set so the lights run themselves
• Free bulb and outage fixes all season
• Takedown between January 1 and January 31
• Labeled, color-coded storage at our facility

Week one: what happens right after you reach out?

The first week is all design and scope, and none of it needs you home. Quotes start from photos you text us, two to four clear shots of the front of the house plus any trees or columns, or from Google Maps and Street View where we measure your roofline in linear feet.

We ask for a rough budget up front. Not to haggle, just to size the design before we draw anything. Then we mark up your photo and get a yes on scope and color before the quote is built.

The quote form takes about 60 seconds and we reply with a same-day quote by text. More detail lives in our guide on getting a quote.

1. 1
   Text us your photos

   Two to four clear photos of the front of the house, plus trees or columns you want lit.

2. 2
   We measure and mock it up

   We measure the roofline in linear feet and draw the display on your photo.

3. 3
   You approve scope and color

   Warm white is our default and most popular. C9 bulbs come in any color or pattern.

4. 4
   Deposit locks the date

   A 50% non-refundable deposit holds your install date on the calendar.

Why does booking in September or October matter so much?

Because the calendar fills in order. Installs run September through December, returning customers book first, and by mid-November we are usually booked into mid-December.

Where you live changes the math

Our crews and storage facility are in Volusia County, so Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach sit close to home. Seminole and Orange County installs get grouped into route days, so early booking matters even more there.

Early bookers also get a 15% early-booking discount for the 2026 season. It does not stack on a job already at the $1,000 minimum. Timing is covered fully in our guide on when to book.

What happens on install day?

We show up with lights already cut to your house and hang the design you approved. Most jobs are front-facing only, the front roofline, with sides and back optional.

How the lights attach

Clips slide under or clamp to shingles, clip onto gutters, or connect to metal flashing. On tile, clips slide up under the tile where they fit, and tile ridgelines often get a removable adhesive that comes off at takedown. Never screws, staples or drilling. Roof-specific detail is in our guide on stucco, tile and metal roofs.

Before we leave, timers are set so the display runs itself. The balance is charged that day, and nothing is due at takedown.

Who fixes it if a bulb or section goes dark?

We do, free, as part of the price. Outages need to be reported to us, and once you let us know we are usually back out within 72 hours.

What we actually see in a Florida season

GFCI outlets tripping after heavy rain. Wet outlets that will not reset. Landscapers cutting or snagging wire. Squirrels chewing wire. Those are the things a lit house runs into, and a call or text to 386-215-5461 starts the fix.

Two things that help: telling your landscaper the lights are up, and keeping your own decorations on a separate outlet from our timers and cords. If a timer looks off, it is best to leave it as programmed and let us know.

In-season service is part of the seasonal rental, not an add-on.

• Report any outage to us by call or text
• Leave the timers set the way we programmed them
• Plug your own decor into a separate outlet
• Keep working outlets near the lit areas, GFCI recommended
• Let your lawn crew know the lights and stake lights are up

What happens in January when the season ends?

Takedown starts January 1 and finishes by January 31. You unplug the cords at season end and contact us to schedule removal. Weather can push a date, but the window stays the same.

Then the lights come back to us

Every strand was custom cut to your house, so it gets coiled, tagged with color-coded tags and stored in labeled bins at our facility. Next season the same display goes back up on the same house.

If you want the lights up past January, that works when it is arranged ahead of time. Nothing is due at takedown, since the balance was charged on install day.

How is this different from paying a handyman to hang your lights?

The difference is who owns the problem. With store-bought lights and hired labor, the strands, the storage, the mid-season outage and next year's missing box are all yours.

We do not install lights a customer bought, including app-controlled or permanent systems, and we do not place stand-alone yard decor like inflatables. We also skip icicle lights on rooflines, because nobody makes a commercial-grade icicle light that lasts. Rooflines and ridges get C9 LED bulbs only.

If permanent track lighting is on your list, our guide on permanent versus seasonal lights compares the two honestly.

What does a full-service Christmas light installation cost?

Every display starts at $1,000, which is our minimum, and that one price carries the whole season rather than just the hanging.

Rough per-foot guide: roofline about $7 per foot, ridgelines about $10 per foot, lights included. Tree wrapping uses 70-light LED mini strands at 4-inch spacing, so a small palm trunk takes about two strands and a large palm four to five. An oak wrapped to about 20 feet takes seven to eight. Walkway and driveway edges use stake lights, roughly one stake per foot.

Businesses are measured and quoted individually, so those ranges do not apply there. Commercial work gets its own proposal. Full breakdown on our pricing page, and element choices in roofline vs ridgeline vs tree wrapping.

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