It's a quiet Tuesday in July. Your phone isn't ringing, the trailer is parked, and Christmas feels a long way off. Then October 1 hits, forty leads land in one week, and every hour you didn't spend this summer turns into a fire you're putting out on a ladder. The installers who have a calm, profitable November don't work harder in November—they finish a checklist in August.
I've been installing Christmas lights professionally since 2014, and I run a 43,000+ member installer community. Every fall I watch the same split: prepared companies quoting in 15 minutes and installing 3 houses a day, and unprepared ones waiting on backordered C9 bulbs while their leads book with someone else.
What Should Be Done by the End of Each Month?
Work backward from your first install. Most markets see installs start in October, with a few warm-climate crews starting late September. Here's the timeline I run and teach:
| Deadline | What must be finished | Why it can't slip |
|---|---|---|
| End of July | Inventory audit, supply order placed, pricing reviewed, insurance renewed | Wholesale C9 and clip stock thins out August–September |
| End of August | Crew hiring posted, shop workflow set, strands pre-bulbed and pre-clipped, website and quote form tested | Training takes weeks; good seasonal labor gets hired by someone |
| End of September | Crews trained, truck and trailer loaded, Google Ads and LSAs live, past customers contacted | Ad accounts need 2–3 weeks of data before lead flow peaks |
| October 1 | Quoting in under an hour, installing within days | Speed to lead is the #1 win-rate factor once the surge starts |
The full season rhythm—when to sell, install, and take down—is mapped in my season calendar guide.
When Should You Order Christmas Light Supplies?
June through August. That's the window when everything is in stock and you're not competing with every other installer's panic order. A typical audit for a 100-account company finds 10–15% of strand inventory needs replacing each year; audit first, then order the gap. My inventory planning guide walks the whole count-and-order process.
What goes on the order: C9 LED bulbs and socket wire at 12" or 15" spacing, enclosed Tuff Clips plus your specialty clips (Shingle, Tile, Mag, Wedge, Flex), SPT-1 zip wire and vampire plugs for custom cords, and mini strings at 4" or 6" spacing for bushes. If you're launching your first season, a pro light kit covers the core in one order—that's the one move to make this week if you make no other.
Then run the shop workflow: bench-test every new strand, and pre-bulb and pre-clip at the shop, not on the ladder. Pull last year's totes and test stored strands before the season—August is when you find the dead runs, not December.
How Do You Get Your Crew and Truck Ready?
Hire in August, train in September. A worked example: one lead installer plus one helper, trained on a practice roofline, will hang a 60-ft ranch roofline package in about 90 minutes by their third week. Untrained labor takes three hours and breaks bulbs the whole way. My hiring and training guide covers where to find seasonal crews and what to pay them; if you want hands-on reps before the season, there's also installer training through my training site.
Gear check while you train: ladder standoff on every ladder, fisherman's vest stocked with precision cutters and side cutters, Mr. Reach pole, 5–10 portable GFCI adapters on the truck. Then stage the vehicle itself—the truck and trailer loadout determines whether your crew does 2 houses a day or 4.
Two paperwork items that can't wait for October: insurance coverage (general liability at minimum, workers' comp if you're hiring) and your service agreement template.
Is Your Pricing Set to Make Money?
Review pricing in July, not mid-season. The numbers that keep a company profitable: roofline at $8–$12 per linear foot with packages starting at $1,200, trees at $30–$60 per foot of height, bushes at $40–$75 per strand, wreaths from $75 installed up to $400–$800 for a 60" jumbo on the house. Takedown is included—that's the red carpet service. Quote totals ending in 7, like $1,847, and take a 30–50% deposit that secures their install date. The complete structure is in my pricing guide, and your quotes go faster all season with the Christmas light calculator.
Target an average ticket of $1,500–$2,000. If last season's average was under $1,200, the fix is usually anchoring ("our packages start at $1,200"—never the word minimum) and upsells: a 60" jumbo wreath on every open gable and a bow upgrade about 75% of customers say yes to.
How Do You Fill October Before It Arrives?
Marketing runs on a calendar too. HOA and commercial outreach happens April–June with budget approvals in July–August—if that window slipped, my HOA sales playbook shows what's still winnable. September–October is when Google Ads and Local Service Ads go live, and summer is when you ask last year's happy customers for Google reviews so your profile is loaded before search volume spikes.
Prep the sales machine itself. When the phone rings, the opener is: "Hi, I'm Jason with [Company]. How can we help you with this amazing, magical Christmas season?" Then: "Have you ever had Christmas lights professionally installed?"—and if yes, "What did you like about the last company, and what didn't you like?" Most leads want an online quote, so build the system that delivers one in 5–20 minutes with an AI mock-up of their own house lit up; mock-ups measurably lift close rates. My guides on quoting in under 20 minutes and proposals that close cover both paths. Starting from zero? The business starter pack bundles the launch essentials.
The Complete Pre-Season Checklist
- Audit inventory—count strands, bulbs, clips, cords; flag the 10–15% that needs replacing.
- Place your supply order by mid-August: C9 LED, socket wire, enclosed Tuff Clips, SPT-1 and vampire plugs, mini strings.
- Bench-test new stock and test last year's totes.
- Pre-bulb and pre-clip every strand at the shop.
- Review pricing—packages start at $1,200, totals end in 7, takedown included.
- Renew insurance and update your service agreement.
- Post hiring ads in August; hire before Labor Day.
- Train crews on a practice roofline in September.
- Stage the truck and trailer—ladders, standoffs, vests, GFCI adapters, labeled totes.
- Test your website and quote form—can a lead request a quote in under a minute?
- Launch Google Ads and LSAs in September so data accumulates before the surge.
- Contact past customers—renewals first; they're your cheapest revenue and they hold your best install dates.
What All This Prep Actually Buys You
None of this is really about totes and spreadsheets. It's about the night in December when your customer pulls into the driveway with the grandkids in the back seat, the whole roofline glows, and the car goes quiet. That's the magical moment they're buying—the best house on the block, ready for hosting. A prepared company delivers that moment on time, every time, and gets the renewal in January without asking twice. An unprepared one delivers excuses in November. The checklist is how you end up on the right side of that.
Related Guides
Keep building your season prep with the supply ordering guide, the truck and trailer loadout, the season calendar, and the crew hiring guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I start preparing my Christmas light business for the season?
July. Audit inventory and order supplies June–August, hire in August, train in September, and launch ads in September–October. If you start prep in October, you're already behind the lead surge.
How much inventory should I plan to replace each year?
Plan for roughly 10–15% of strand inventory annually. If you're replacing more than that, the real problem is usually your takedown or storage process, not the product.
When do Christmas light installs actually start?
Most markets start installing in October, with some warm-climate crews starting late September. Leads spike hard in October and November, which is why quoting speed—5 to 20 minutes for an online quote—matters so much.
What should a pre-season supply order include?
C9 LED bulbs and socket wire at 12" or 15" spacing, enclosed clips plus specialty clips for your roof types, SPT-1 zip wire and vampire plugs for custom cords, and 4" or 6" spacing mini strings for bushes. LED only, and never net lights.
How many houses can a trained crew install per day?
A trained two-person crew typically installs 2–4 residential jobs a day depending on size, and takes down 10–20 a day in January. Training and a staged truck are what separate the two ends of that range.
About the author: Jason Geiman has been installing Christmas lights professionally since 2014 and is the founder of ChristmasLightsHQ, the #1 resource for professional Christmas light installers. He runs a 43,000+ member installer community and teaches contractors how to build profitable holiday lighting businesses.