What a Full-Service Christmas Lighting Program Includes, From Design Call to Takedown

Most people get their first professional Christmas lighting estimate expecting to be quoted installation. Then they find out takedown costs extra. Or that maintenance is not included. Or that the company stores the product but charges a fee each spring. Or that what looked like a complete program has several line items that were never discussed upfront.

That is not what a full-service program looks like. Here is what it does look like, from the first call to the day the truck pulls away in January.

What “Full Service” Means and What It Does Not

The phrase gets used loosely in this industry. Some companies that call themselves full service mean they will install and take down. Some include storage. Some include maintenance. Some do not.

When The Perfect Light says full service, it means design through storage, under one price, for the lifetime of the account. The homeowner never receives a surprise invoice for a service call, a replacement bulb, or an off-schedule takedown request. The price covers the season. Every season.

What is included in a TPL Christmas lighting program:

• Initial design consultation at the property
• Custom-cut product selected for the home and design
• Professional installation by our in-house employees
• Mid-season service calls, including bulb replacements and adjustments
• Takedown in January
• Off-season storage through the following fall
• Spring renewal coordination

What is not included is intentional: there is no add-on menu. If something needs to be addressed during the season, it gets addressed. That is the program.

Step 1: The Design Call

The program starts with a design consultation at the property. This is not a sales presentation. It is a working conversation about your home and what you want the finished result to look like.

Our team walks the house with you and covers the practical questions. What areas do you want lit: roofline, trees, columns, garland on the entry, all of the above? What is the style of the neighborhood, and do you want to match it or stand out? Are you decorating for a specific event date or for the full season? Do you lean toward classic warm white, cool white, multicolor, or something more specific?

The design call typically runs 30 to 45 minutes. By the end, you have a clear picture of what the installation will look like, what it costs, and when it happens. Nothing is ambiguous on any of those three points before anything moves forward.

A note on timing: renewals for existing accounts open in May and run through July. New accounts can often be accommodated later in the season, but the best design flexibility and installation scheduling come from booking early.

Step 2: Product Selection

The Christmas lighting used in The Perfect Light’s programs is commercial-grade, custom-cut product. It is not purchased at a hardware store and it is not generic product measured off a roll. It will not look like what a neighbor installed on a Saturday afternoon.

Custom-cut means the product is prepared specifically for your roofline dimensions, wrapped trees, columns, and other architectural features. Every strand is the correct length for the surface it covers. There are no extension cords running across the roofline to make up for a strand that came up short. The finished installation has a clean, intentional look that commercial-grade product and precise measurement produce.

Color and style decisions are made during the design call: warm white or cool white, multicolor or single color, globe spacing, bulb style. Most clients settle into a design in the first season and keep it. The product is stored over the off-season and returned to the same property the following fall.

Step 3: Installation Day

Installation for a typical residential program takes three to six hours depending on the scope of the design. Our in-house employees arrive with the custom product already prepared and labeled for the property. You do not need to be home, though many clients are.

The crew works the roofline, trees, and architectural features according to the design developed during the consultation. Timers or smart controls are set before the crew leaves. Everything is verified and working before we go.

What the homeowner does on installation day: nothing. That is the point of a program like this.

Step 4: Mid-Season Service Calls

This is the piece of the program that separates a real full-service company from one that uses the phrase.

A strand goes dark the week before Christmas. A section of the roofline shifts after a windstorm. The timer resets after a power outage and the lights are coming on at 3pm. You call. We come back.

Mid-season service calls are included in the program. There is no trip charge. There is no minimum. If something with the installation needs attention during the season, it is addressed. That is what all-inclusive means.

A well-designed, properly installed program has fewer things to go wrong. The service calls that come up most often are minor: a shifted stake, a blown fuse at the transformer, a timer that drifted after a power event. Those take 20 minutes to resolve. We handle them.

Step 5: Takedown and Storage

Takedown is scheduled in January, typically in the two to three weeks after the new year. We coordinate the specific date with each client, and the crew comes back to remove everything.

Product is taken down, coiled, and stored at our facility through the following fall. Homeowners do not store their own product. There is no storage fee. The product stays in our care from January through the next installation season.

When the next season arrives, the product is inspected before it goes back on the house. Anything that has failed over the off-season is replaced. The homeowner does not manage inventory, does not untangle strands in the garage in November, and does not discover that half the product stored last January has stopped working.

The Renewal Program

Existing clients renew their programs each spring, typically in the May through July window. Renewal means the same design returns to the same property, with any updates the client wants to make.

Some clients renew the identical design for 10 or 15 years. Others use the renewal conversation to expand the scope, add trees or garland, or update the color palette. The renewal conversation is also when pricing is confirmed for the upcoming season.

The all-inclusive pricing model means the annual program cost covers the full season, every season. No surprises from year to year. Clients who have been with The Perfect Light for many years know exactly what the program covers and what it costs. That is by design.

Programs start at $2,000. Most full residential programs fall above that depending on the scope of the design. Every program covers the full season from installation through January takedown and storage.