We install Christmas lights for a living, so you'd expect us to say you should always hire a professional. We won't. For some homes, doing it yourself is a perfectly good choice. For others, it's a bad afternoon waiting to happen.
Here's a fair way to tell which one you are.
When DIY makes sense
Doing it yourself is reasonable if most of these are true:
- Your home is single-story with eaves you can reach comfortably from a stable ladder.
- You want a modest display — the front roofline, a couple of bushes, a wreath.
- You have somewhere dry to store the lights for eleven months.
- You actually enjoy it. For some families, putting up the lights is the tradition.
If that's you, go for it. Buy the best lights you can, test every strand on the ground before it goes up, and take your time.
Where it gets harder in South Florida
A few things about homes here make the job tougher than the videos suggest.
Tile roofs
Barrel and flat tile roofs are everywhere in Miami-Dade and Broward, and they're unforgiving. Tiles can crack under foot traffic, and the usual clips made for shingles and gutters don't fit tile edges. Lighting a tile roofline cleanly takes the right clips and a way to work without walking on the roof.
Height
Two-story homes put the roofline well beyond what most people should attempt from a ladder. Tall palms are higher still. Holiday decorating puts a lot of people on ladders who aren't on them the rest of the year, and ladder falls are one of the most common ways the season ends in an emergency room.
Weather
Our fall is warm, humid, and frequently wet. Outdoor connections need to be kept off the ground and out of standing water, and everything should run from outdoor-rated outlets with ground-fault protection. If your exterior outlets trip repeatedly once the lights are plugged in, that's worth having checked rather than worked around.
Storage
Lights that spend the summer in a hot, humid garage don't always come out working. Tangled strands and dead sections in November are the most common reason people give up on DIY.
The true cost of doing it yourself
DIY is usually cheaper in dollars, at least in year one. It's worth being honest about the full picture, though:
- Materials. Lights, clips, extension cords, timers, and stakes for a whole house add up faster than expected, and some will need replacing each year.
- Time. Putting up, troubleshooting, taking down, and packing away is typically a couple of weekends across the season.
- Repairs. When a section goes dark in mid December, you're the one back on the ladder.
- Risk. Hard to put a number on, but it's the part that matters most.
What you're paying for with a professional
With a full-service installer, you're paying to have the whole project handled, not just hung:
- Design that fits your specific home.
- Commercial-grade lights, supplied for you — nothing to buy.
- Installation by an insured crew with the right equipment.
- Maintenance all season. If something goes out, they come fix it.
- Takedown after the holidays, with everything removed.
- No storage. Nothing goes in your garage.
That's how our service works: one seasonal price that covers all of it. You can see the details on our how it works page.
Questions to ask any installer
If you do hire someone, a few questions will tell you a lot:
- Are you insured? People will be working at height on your property.
- Is maintenance included, or billed per visit?
- Is takedown included?
- Do I buy the lights, or do you supply them?
- Is the price I'm quoted the price I pay? Ask what could change it.
- What happens to my deposit if I cancel?
Clear answers up front are a good sign. Vague ones usually stay vague.
A simple way to decide
Small single-story display and you enjoy doing it? DIY.
Two stories, a tile roof, tall palms, or you'd simply rather spend those weekends on something else? Hire it out.
If you're somewhere in between, the easiest way to decide is to see the actual number. Our instant quote takes about two minutes and there's no obligation — at the very least you'll know what you're comparing your weekend against.
