Tye Norden 
Every lawn and landscaping company in the Midwest hits the same wall in November. The mowing is done, leaf cleanups are wrapping up, snow hasn’t started, and good crew members start looking for winter work somewhere else. Roofers and pressure washers feel the same slowdown.
A Christmas light installation business fills that gap. You already have the trucks, the ladders, the crew and, most important, a list of homeowners who trust you. This post covers how to start a Christmas light installation business as an add-on, when to sell it, how to package it so customers come back every year, and how to keep your crew safe on the roof. Not sure where your business is leaking leads? The 2-minute Growth Score Assessment will point to your biggest gap.
Is a Christmas light installation business profitable?
It can be, and it’s most profitable as an add-on rather than a standalone startup. You aren’t buying a truck or hiring a crew from scratch. You’re putting people you already pay to work in weeks that would otherwise be slow.
The demand is real and very seasonal. DataForSEO keyword data shows U.S. searches for “christmas light installation near me” at roughly 60,500 in November 2025, compared with about 4,400 in May and June 2026. The broader term “christmas light installation” hit about 110,000 that November.
Christmas lights as an add-on: the honest tradeoffs
Pros
- Keeps crews working and paid in November and December
- Sells to customers who already know and trust you
- Install, takedown and storage can renew every year
- Fits naturally with lawn, landscaping, roofing and pressure washing
Cons
- Ladder and roof work brings real fall risk and insurance questions
- The selling window is short, and demand drops off fast after the holidays
- Weather can push installs around
- You need a place to store and organize lights if you include storage
The companies that make it pay treat it like a real service line: priced properly, sold early, scheduled tightly, and renewed every year.
How to start a Christmas light installation business
1. Write a short Christmas light installation business plan
You don’t need a 30-page document. The SBA says a lean startup plan “can take as little as one hour to make” and is “typically only one page.” For an add-on service, cover:
- Who you’ll sell to first: your current customer list, then their neighbors.
- What’s in the package: design, install, a service call if something goes out, takedown and storage.
- Your lighting model: customer-owned lights, or lights you supply (more on that below).
- Capacity: how many installs your crew can handle per day, and your last install date before the holidays.
- Your sales calendar: when you’ll pitch, follow up and close the list.
2. Decide who owns the lights
This is the biggest decision in your Christmas light installation business plan, because it changes your pricing, storage and renewals.
You supply the lights
- How it works: Your price includes the lights, which you own and reuse or retire
- Best for: Customers who want a done-for-you, consistent look
- Upside: Higher-value package and easier yearly renewals
- Watch out for: Upfront inventory cost and storage space
Customer-owned lights
- How it works: You install and remove the customer's lights, priced as labor
- Best for: Customers who already own a setup
- Upside: No inventory to buy
- Watch out for: Old or mismatched lights that fail and become your problem
Install + takedown + storage package
- How it works: One price covers the season, from design to storage until next year
- Best for: Busy homeowners who want it handled
- Upside: Turns a one-time job into a recurring yearly customer
- Watch out for: You need a labeled, organized storage system
A sensible path is to start with customer-owned installs in year one, then move toward supplied lights and storage packages once you know your demand.
3. Get your insurance and safety right first
Falls are the main risk in this work. The CPSC says there are “about 160 Christmas decorating-related injuries each day during the holiday season, with nearly half of the injuries involving falls.” Your crew will be on ladders and rooflines in cold weather, and often in short daylight.
Call your insurance agent before you sell the first job. Ask specifically whether your general liability covers ladder and roof work for holiday lighting, since a lawn care policy may not have been written with rooftop work in mind. If you have employees in Ohio, the Ohio BWC says employers with employees hired in Ohio need a workers’ compensation policy, and seasonal help counts.
Two more rules that protect you: use clips rather than nails or staples so you don’t damage gutters and shingles, and if a job needs a new outlet or circuit, hand it to a licensed electrician.
How should you price Christmas light installation?
Price every job by the work it actually takes, not by a flat number you saw online. The things that drive your time and cost are:
- Linear footage of rooflines, gutters and walkways.
- Height and pitch, since a two-story steep roof is slower and riskier than a ranch.
- Trees and bushes, wrapped or draped.
- Who supplies the lights, and whether they’re reused next year.
- Takedown and storage, priced into the package, not tacked on later.
Measure on site or from aerial photos, write the quote in a simple, itemized format, and set a minimum job size so short trips still pay. Our guides on how to price a job and how to write a contractor estimate walk through the math and the format.
Before you settle on prices, look at what other installers in your area advertise and how quickly they fill up. You don’t need to be the cheapest. Being the company the customer already trusts on their property is worth a lot.
When and how should you sell Christmas light installation?
Sell in September and October. By the time most homeowners think about it in November, the good installers are booked.
A simple calendar for a lawn or exterior company:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| August | Renewal offers to last year’s lighting customers. Order lights and clips. |
| September | Pitch every current customer. Add lighting to your website and Google Business Profile. |
| October | Door hangers on your routes. Follow up on every open quote. Fill your install calendar. |
| November | Installs. Take new jobs only if they fit the schedule. |
| January | Takedowns, storage and next year’s booking. |
1. Sell your current customers first
The best Christmas light customers are the ones who already pay you in July. Mention it on your fall cleanup invoice, at the last mow, and in a short text or email to customers who have agreed to hear from you.
Hi Lisa, it’s Mike from Mike’s Lawn & Landscape. We’re booking holiday light installs for this season, and that includes install, takedown and storage. Reply LIGHTS and we’ll send you a quote. We only have so many install days before Thanksgiving.
2. Work the neighbors
Lights are the most visible thing you’ll ever install. When I sold roofing and exteriors door to door for three years, the easiest doors were always next to a job we were already doing, because neighbors trust what they can see. A lit house is a billboard for the whole street. Hang door hangers on the surrounding houses within a day of each install.
3. Show up where people search
Add holiday lighting to your website and Google Business Profile services in plain words, and post photos of finished installs. If you serve Northwest Ohio, a free listing on Home Pros Ohio is one more place homeowners can find you. The seasonal marketing ideas post has more fall and winter campaigns that fit.
4. Follow up fast
Lighting quotes have a hard deadline, so speed wins. Answer every call, text back missed calls, and follow up on open quotes twice in the first week. Our guide on how to follow up after an estimate has scripts.
How do you turn lights into a yearly recurring customer?
Takedown day is the best sales call of the year, because the customer is standing in front of the house you just made look great. Use it.
- Rebook at takedown. Offer to reserve the same install window for next year, with the design saved.
- Label and store everything. One bin per customer, labeled by area of the house, so next year’s install is faster and the lights fit perfectly.
- Send an early renewal in summer. A “your spot is reserved” note in August gets you in front of last year’s customers before anyone else does.
- Ask for a review after install, when the lights are on and they’re happy. Ask every customer, and never offer a discount or gift in exchange. Google’s policy prohibits incentives for reviews.
- Bundle with snow. If you plow, sell lights and snow together. Our snow removal marketing guide covers that side.
Your Christmas light add-on checklist
- One-page plan with package, pricing approach and install capacity
- Decision made: supplied lights, customer-owned, or both
- Insurance confirmed for ladder and roof work; workers’ comp in place for any employees
- Crew trained on OSHA ladder basics; GFCI and outdoor-rated gear only
- Clips, not nails or staples
- Offer sent to current customers by September
- Holiday lighting added to your website and Google Business Profile
- Door hangers around every install
- Labeled storage system for every customer
- Next year’s install date offered at every takedown
Quick wins
Want leads this month? Start here
Build the foundation first. A good website, local SEO and citations, plus every profile you can claim: Google, social media, search engines and directories. Keep your NAP (business name, address and phone number) exactly the same on your website and every listing. Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and claim Bing Places for Business. The more digital real estate you own, the farther everything below takes you.
Hit up past customers
Send everyone you've worked for a real offer. They already trust you, so it's the fastest money on the board.
Do cold outreach
Call, text (with consent), email or walk in to the people and businesses who buy what you sell.
Run ads
Put a simple offer in front of homeowners in your service area this week.
Post content
Before-and-after photos, short videos and quick tips on your Google profile and social pages.
Partner with businesses that own your customers
Adjacent companies already serve the people you want. When they recommend you, you borrow their authority and trust. Co-market, swap leads or partner on lists (and follow the consent rules).
Answer every lead in under a minute
The faster you reply, the more you close. Wait 2 to 5 minutes and many leads have already called someone else.
Work every job's neighborhood
- Canvass the neighborhood around every job site. Knock on the doors on both sides and across the street.
- Leave a door hanger at every house you don't catch at home.
- Drop a handwritten note or card at the neighbors' doors: sorry for the noise and the trucks, plus an offer for a free inspection or quote.
- Put a yard sign in front of every job, and at the entrance of neighborhoods where you've done work (with permission).
Ask for introductions, not referrals
"Do you know anyone who needs…?" gets a polite "I'll keep you in mind." Asking for an introduction to a specific person gets names. Set it up at the sale, before the work starts:
"Most of our customers come from introductions, about [your real number, like 80 to 90] percent. If we knock it out of the park for you, would you be against introducing me to anyone you know who might need their holiday lights hung? We'll give them a free lighting design."
Then follow up after the job. If you've built real rapport with the customer, a little humor works:
"So do you hate me, or do you hate your friends? Why haven't you left a review or introduced me to someone who needs their holiday lights hung yet?"
Only joke like that with customers you know well. With everyone else, keep it simple and thank them either way.
The bottom line
A Christmas light installation business is one of the simplest ways for a lawn, landscaping, roofing or pressure washing company to keep crews busy after the season ends. Sell your own customers first in September and October, package install, takedown and storage together, take safety and insurance seriously, and rebook every customer at takedown.
If November already got away from you this year, start with your customer list now and plan to sell earlier next fall. For the follow-up side, the Booked Solid System handles missed-call text-back, review requests and quote follow-up automatically. Our lawn care marketing service can run seasonal campaigns like this to your list.