Christmas Light Installation Pricing in Spokane
How It Works
Christmas light pricing in Spokane seems to vary tremendously between companies. Most tend to be between $6 and $10 per foot for a first year install based on data we have gathered from jobs we have either won or lost. Comparing company websites leaves you with more questions than answers. Everyone has a different way they do it.
When you get a quote why do some companies price by the linear foot and others have different packages? What is actually included with the lights and the install? Do they come back to take them down and what happens if they never show back up? Who is actually installing your lights?
We put together this guide to help you figure out exactly how Christmas light pricing in Spokane works and whether you should just do it yourself.
The Short Version
Spokane christmas light pricing at The Bright Side is straightforward. Everything is included. Lights, install, removal, and storage. We beat any competitor quote by $50 cash at your door. No contracts. No recycled lights. Kris answers when you call.
If you want to know exactly how we do things and why keep reading. Most people do.
Who Gets Holiday Lights Installed
We have all types of clients ranging across different ages and there is no specific profile of who uses our Christmas light service.
Some years we have out of town adult kids who want to gift their parents or grandparents a custom holiday light display. Every year we have the couple where the wife is not letting her husband up on the roof anymore. Him and I chit chat while I hang the lights they chose together. You can tell he misses it but in the end he usually admits they look better or just about as good as what he used to do. Jokingly of course. We even have younger homeowners with larger two story homes where the top peak and the roof pitch seem to get steeper every time they look at it.
The Equipment That Makes It Possible
The Bright Side has specialty equipment that makes hanging lights significantly safer than a homeowner standing on the top rung of a ladder with a staple gun.
Temporary roof anchors that attach to the roof and allow us to harness in without causing any damage to the shingles or ridge. Hook style ladders that hold onto the peak and let us walk up and down with ease. Foam cushions that grip the shingles, level out our working surface, and hold us firm on the roof.
This is what makes it possible to install holiday lights on any type of Spokane home regardless of pitch or height. Not everyone has this equipment and certainly most homeowners don’t.
Where Our Lights Come From
We source all our lights regionally and use Village Lighting products for every install. I have personally met the owners of the Utah based company and love supporting them. Luckily we have found suppliers in Spokane and Boise that carry their products and continue to use them.
To be honest all the bulbs and materials come from China and are made in the same factories. But the branded lights like Village Lighting are brighter and last longer than the unbranded generic alternatives. A lot of our competitors bulk order cheaper lights and charge more than us for the install. We absorb the cost of using better materials because we like the company that makes them and because it is nice not getting multiple texts throughout the season that another bulb burned out.
How Our Quoting Process Works
Fill out our contact form or call or text. Kris answers.
I will ask what you want lit up this season, what light colors you are thinking, and whether you have had this done before. The most common installation is the front of the home which is all gutter lines and peaks. You can add the sides or do a full wrap depending on your budget and what is actually visible.
If there is a peak that is not visible from the street or a side that would shine directly into a neighbor’s bedroom we will let you know our recommendation. Once we have the basic information we measure everything from satellite images and put together a custom quote and mockup of your home. Everyone is on the same page before we start.
We do not come out to your home, pressure you into the most expensive option, and leave you already feeling uncertain about how this is going to go.
If you already have other quotes let us know. More on that in the $50 cash section below.
For more on how our quoting process works across all our services see our how to read a pressure washing quote guide which covers exactly what to look for in any home service quote.
How Pricing Works
Most Spokane Christmas light pricing is based on the linear foot of installed lights. Some offer packages with color options at different price points. Our pricing is straightforward and based on the linear footage of your specific roofline. That price does not change based on color. Warm white, cool white, multicolor. We have them all and the price is the same.
If you find a cheaper competitor quote we will beat it and hand you $50 cash at the door once we wrap up the install. More on that below.
Tree, Shrub, and Landscape Lighting
We use mini LED strands for all tree wraps and shrub lighting. They allow us to weave through the canopy and around the base of the tree so the landscaping complements the roofline display rather than looking like an afterthought.
For large pine, maple, or other trees we can reach about 30 feet up to start the wrap. Anything higher requires a lift. We rent a lift for the week and split the rental across any homes that need it that week. This is the most cost effective approach for everyone rather than charging each home individually for the full rental cost.
Depending on your vision we can use C7 bulbs on landscaping to really make it bright.
Pathway lighting and lights trimming window frames are not really our thing. Pathway lights disappear when it snows. Stapling lights around window trim causes more problems than it solves. If those are something you want for your display there are plenty of other companies that will provide that service.
C7 vs C9 — Don't Let Anyone Tell You Different
Both are commercial grade bulbs. One is used on commercial properties. One is used in residential settings. Both are very bright.
We use C7 bulbs on all our residential installations. Here is why.
They look better during the day. I can already hear competitors saying who cares what they look like during the day. Hear me out.
All those bulky triangle tabs and giant C9 bulbs on a roofline just look like heaps of plastic during daylight hours. It bothers me more than it should. Using smaller C7 bulbs and installing them facing down directs light off your fascia trim and produces a smoother and brighter display than bulbs pointing forward or straight up.
This is a method refined over hundreds of homes, thousands of displays reviewed, and years of trial and error. Lights facing down look better. C7 bulbs look better during the day. We use low profile clips that work for both gutters and peaks and look great from the street and from inside the house looking out.
C9 bulbs are not worth the trade-off in terms of brightness for the bulkiness. There is a small price difference between C9 and C7 from our supplier but that is not why we use C7. Our C7 bulbs from Village Lighting actually cost more than the generic unbranded lights most other companies in this market are installing. We are not choosing C7 because it saves us money. We are choosing it because it looks better on your home and we would rather absorb a slightly higher material cost than install something that bothers us every time we drive past it.
What the Install Looks Like
Every install is cut and bulbed for your specific house at your house on installation day. Not pre-cut in a warehouse and stretched to fit. Your roofline gets custom cut product made for your exact measurements.
If a client chooses not to have their lights put up again we store them through the following season. After the second consecutive year of declining to rehang they go on my house, a friend’s, or an employee’s. We do not recycle used lights or mix used bulbs with new ones. First year clients get brand new lights. Returning clients get their lights from the previous season.
The jump wires connecting elevation changes are 18 AWG green lamp style cord. Less bulky than extension cords and cut to the exact lengths we need for your specific roofline. No excess cord bunched up at the corner. The main power run connects via a locking inline splice so it will not disconnect in bad weather or winter conditions. The main power cord ends at a photo cell timer that is adjustable based on how long you want the lights on after dark.
All male and female connection plugs are wired so that if they ever disconnect you do not have a live plug that can shock or short out. The ends of the light cord get specialty termination ends. Not electrical tape and a prayer. For all mini LED strands the exposed female end is covered so water and snow cannot get in and cause a hazard.
Every clip that gets dropped or stuck during removal gets picked up. There will not be a yard full of white clips showing up when the snow melts or a random clip at the top of the peak that someone was too lazy to climb back up and grab.
Our displays are done right.
What You Get Before You Commit to Anything
Every quote from The Bright Side comes with a digital mockup of your home. It is not the fanciest rendering you have ever seen but it gets the point across. You see what your home looks like with the light color you chose and which areas we are planning to install. It is close to scale without being exact.
If you are undecided on a light color we default the mockup to warm white. That does not mean warm white is what we are installing. It just means warm white is the most popular choice and it gives you something real to react to rather than an abstract description of what your home might look like.
The mockup and quote take us about twenty minutes to put together. We do it for every single inquiry because we think everyone deserves to see what they are getting before they make a decision.
One small ask after we send it over. Even if you decide not to go with us this season let us know. A quick text saying we are holding off this year or we went with someone else is all it takes. We put real time into each quote and mockup. Leaving it on read is the one thing that is genuinely harder to deal with than a no. A no is a perfectly fine answer. Silence is the only answer that does not work for us.
Who Is Coming to Put Your Lights Up
When you call The Bright Side you get us. Kris quotes the job, does the install, and handles removal and storage. I usually have help. If you have a question in June about your lights or cannot remember what color white we used last year give us a call and we will answer. You do not have to worry about us going out of business between seasons and having to start over with a new company next fall.
There are companies in this market that present themselves as holiday lighting installers but are nothing more than a website that collects your information and sells it to whoever bids the highest for the lead. You fill out a form and an unknown contractor calls you back. You have no idea who that person is, whether they are actually insured, or whether they will answer the phone in January when you need your lights down.
The questions worth asking before you give anyone your address and your roofline access:
What happens if the installer falls off the roof? They say they are insured but are they actually? Ask for a certificate of insurance before anyone gets on your home.
What happens if the wiring is done incorrectly and causes a fire? Who is liable and how do you reach them after the season ends?
Who handles burnt out bulbs mid-season and what is the actual response time? Not what the website says. What actually happens when you text someone in December.
We put this guide together so you can see exactly how christmas light pricing in Spokane works, how The Bright Side handles every part of this service, and hopefully gives you the right questions to ask any company before you book.
Before you book with any holiday lighting company in Spokane take two minutes and look them up. Search the business name of whoever you are getting a quote from on both of these tools and confirm they are legitimate before anyone gets on your roof.
Washington State L&I Contractor Verification — confirms they are licensed to do contractor work in Washington State and carries the required insurance. Verify a Washington contractor at L&I.
Washington Secretary of State Business Lookup — confirms the business is legally registered to operate in Washington State. Verify a Washington business at the Secretary of State.
If a company cannot be found on both of these databases do not let them on your roof. A business that is not registered with the state and not licensed through L&I has no accountability to you if something goes wrong. No recourse on damages. No insurance backing a claim. Nobody to call if the lights fall down and pull your gutters off in January.
We will be on both. Look us up.
See what real Spokane homeowners say about working with us. Read our holiday lighting reviews.
We Beat Any Competitor Quote by $50 In Cash. At Your Door.
We will beat any competitor first year price by $50 cash in hand.
Christmas light pricing should not cost an arm and a leg. Everyone should be able to enjoy a festive season without sacrificing something else to get lights or risk their safety hanging their own. If you already have a competitor quote, a mockup, or simply a number let us know. We will confirm the scope and have $50 ready for installation day.
Not a credit or a coupon toward next year. It is not a discount applied somewhere in the invoice math. Fifty dollars cash in your hand the day your lights go up. Put it toward Christmas gifts, take the family to dinner, or just pocket it.
For the full details on how the $50 offer works see our holiday light installation page.
Contracts
We don’t require them.
It would be nice to lock you into a multi-year contract with an inflated first year price that gets discounted the longer the contract is, but that is not how we operate. Life happens. People move. Finances change. That is why we have a set rate with a 15 percent discount for rehangs each year. If we price matched a competitor quote that is the lowest we can go and the rehang discount does not apply on top of it.
Warranties And The Rental Car Story
Warranties on holiday lights are probably more inconsistent across companies than pricing itself. Some companies offer one year warranties. No warranties. Limited warranties. Warranties that only apply on Tuesdays if it is not snowing.
Here is how we think about it.
You are renting or leasing our product. For as long as you are our client we warranty the lights. All these lights are mass produced. There are times when a section of line is defective, a squirrel chews through a cord, or a kid breaks a socket with a snowball. These things have happened and will continue to happen. If there are any issues or the lights are starting to look dim or stained we will just fix it. If that means cutting a whole new install and re-bulbing the entire run that is what we will do.
That is just how it should work.
I rented a car once and the tail light bulb was out. Within a few hours of having the car I got pulled over and got a ticket. The cop did not care it was a rental. The rental company did not care it was their car. I got a ticket. That is exactly what having any other type of warranty on leased Christmas lights feels like.
We own the product. We fix the product. End of story.
What January Takedown and Storage Looks Like
When January rolls around we reach out to get you on the takedown schedule and give you a specific removal day. Nobody has to be home.
If we installed wreaths that you own we set them by the garage or somewhere out of view. The lights come down faster than they go up but we still get on the roof to remove them properly. A lot of companies will just rip them down from the ground. This damages the lights and can damage your home. We also hide wires under siding and under eaves during installation and they simply do not pull off from the ground without causing problems.
Everything on your installation is labeled. A photo is taken during installation and labeled with what strand went where. That way next year your lights look exactly the same and we are not guessing which strand covers which section of roofline.
Light strands are taped individually with the clips left on and packed into a plastic storage container labeled with your name. That container goes on our truck and back to our shop where it stays until next season. Everything gets dried off at the shop so the bulbs do not corrode from moisture sitting in the container through the off season. Safe and sound until we pull them out the following year.
If your previous installer never showed up in January and your lights are still up we remove other companies lights too. It happens more than you would think. See our holiday light removal page.
Spokane Specific Install Challenges
It gets dark early in Spokane in the winter. Three thirty rolls around and it is almost time to pack up. We do not mind working in the dark but when the sun goes down roofs start to frost over and become unsafe to walk on. There have been jobs where we are working and the frost starts forming in front of your eyes mid-install. That is a good time to call it for the day.
Our install times start between 10 and 11am for exactly this reason. That window gives the frost from the night before time to melt before anyone gets on a roof. North facing homes usually go in the afternoon and take the longest to thaw. If you have a north facing roofline expect a later start time and plan accordingly.
The South Hill specifically has older homes with steep roofs that look incredible with lights but require the right equipment to install safely. The roof anchors, hook ladders, and foam cushions we described earlier are not optional on those homes. They are what makes the job possible at all.
Snow and ice are the other reason we push for early season installs while the weather is still cooperative. Some clients think October is too early for holiday lights. We understand that. But October weather makes our job safer and the alternative is crews working on icy rooflines in November which is not a risk we are willing to take.
Speaking of November. We will gladly install lights in November but know that if there is snow on the roof we can only safely access the lower sections of your home. If there is a light dusting we can hope it melts and come back to complete the upper sections. We do not walk on snow covered roofs and we do not install on snow covered roofs. That is not a limitation we are willing to negotiate on for anyone’s safety including ours.
This is another reason early booking matters. October installs happen in dry conditions on clear rooflines with full access to every peak and elevation. November installs happen in whatever Spokane decides to throw at us that week.
Why We Are Offering $50 Cash This Season
After spending the summer doing fire retardant cleanup in the Rifle Club and Indian Trail neighborhoods we saw firsthand how devastating those areas look. It is going to be a long road to rebuild.
Walking through those neighborhoods you see people who have hung American flags in the ruins or left lawn decorations that survived as a reminder that people lived here and still do. The thought of even a handful of the homes that survived having lights on them this December feels like something worth making happen. A small reminder of the strength this community has when things get hard.
That is why the $50 cash offer exists this season. Christmas light pricing should not be the reason someone skips a festive holiday after the year Spokane has had. We will beat any competitor quote by $50 and hand you the cash at the door. It is our small way of putting a little more light into a neighborhood that could use it.
We might never do this offer again. But this season felt like the right time.
What Bad Holiday Light Installs Actually Look Like
We drive past them every December. Here is what we see.
Cords dangling loose or running too long down the roofline in plain view from the street. The installer did not tuck them under the siding or did not cut them to the right length.
Peak bulbs that are not actually at the peak of the roof. The strand extends past the end of the home on one side because the measurement was off and nobody climbed back up to fix it.
Unevenly spaced lights across the roofline where you can see the gaps between bulbs vary from six inches to ten inches depending on where the installer got tired of adjusting.
Bulbs pointing up toward the sky instead of down toward the fascia. Those lights lose most of their visual impact because the light is going the wrong direction and the display looks dim from the street even though all the bulbs are functioning.
Lights that fell down halfway through December and were never fixed because the company stopped answering calls after the install check cleared.
Tree wraps that clearly should have been left out altogether. Four strands wrapped around the base of a forty foot pine with nothing above six feet. It draws attention to itself in exactly the wrong way.
We are not perfect but we notice all of these things and we genuinely cannot drive past them without making a mental note. That attention to what looks right and what does not is what goes into every install we do.
(P.S. This photo is our install, this is what they should look like)
Should You Just DIY It?
Maybe. For a single story home with a simple roofline and no significant pitch a motivated homeowner with the right equipment can absolutely hang their own lights. The cost of decent C7 LED strands, clips, and timers for a single story front elevation runs a few hundred dollars upfront.
When you are comparing christmas light pricing in Spokane the DIY math changes quickly on two story homes steep pitches and complex rooflines. That is where our temporary roof anchors, hook ladders, and foam cushion working platforms make a meaningful safety difference. Standing on the top rung of a ladder stapling lights to a steep South Hill roofline is genuinely dangerous. We have the equipment to make it safe. Most homeowners do not.
See what Spokane homeowners say about our holiday lighting. Read holiday lighting reviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are the questions we get most often about christmas light pricing in Spokane. If yours is not here call or text 509-464-9461.
Can we change bulb colors from year to year?
Yes within reason. We will not redo your entire display every year but if you had white and red and want all white next season we can do that. Accent colors on the peaks you did not quite like can be changed to solid white. Small adjustments are part of the relationship.
What if lights fall down or a bulb burns out mid-season?
Text us with a photo if you can and we will be out within 24 hours. That is the commitment not just a policy statement.
What if I want C9 bulbs instead?
If you have a preference for C9 bulbs for whatever reason we will install them. Let us know upfront that you want C9 and we will not give our opinion and we will put them up. We have every style on hand.
How much does tree wrapping cost?
We start at $35 per strand. Most smaller trees benefit from three to four strands. Larger trees can take ten to twelve strands depending on canopy size and how full you want the wrap to look.
Why is tree wrapping more expensive than roofline lighting?
Time and product costs. We use quality mini LED strands that cost more than store bought alternatives. Tree wrapping takes longer to install correctly and look good. We do not toss lights up. They are evenly spaced and equally wrapped from the base up. Removal also takes time on a properly wrapped tree. The price reflects the actual labor and materials involved.
Can I turn my lights off when I want?
Yes. After installation we show you where the timer is and how to adjust it. If it is too early in the season for you to have lights on or you want to turn them off before we come for removal just turn off the timer. The lights will come back on at dusk the next day automatically.
Do you install permanent lights or customer provided lights?
Not currently. We are working with Village Lighting on a permanent product we feel confident installing and may have that option next season. We do not install customer provided lights unless they are commercial grade. Send us a photo and we will take a look before committing either way.
My previous installer never showed up to remove my lights. Can you help?
Yes. See our holiday light removal page for full details and give us a call. We would love to help.
Get a Quote for Your Property
Ready to get a real christmas light pricing quote for your Spokane home? Call or text. We respond same day, measure from satellite images, and have a custom quote and mockup ready before we ever visit the property.
We install holiday lights throughout Spokane and surrounding communities in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. See our full service area.