Knowing how to hang Christmas lights yourself pays off on a single-story house with a plain roofline you can reach from a ladder on level ground, and it makes sense to hire someone to hang Christmas lights once the job means second-story peaks, a steep roof or a cold ladder in December. Doing it yourself means buying the lights, clips and cords, putting them up in November and taking them down again in January. Hiring us takes all of it off your list: we provide the lights, do the hanging and take everything down in January.
Side by side: doing it yourself or hiring it out
Here is what each choice puts on you.
Doing it yourself | Hiring Glass Guru | |
|---|---|---|
The lights | You buy them | We provide commercial-grade LED lights, each run cut to fit the edge it follows |
How they attach | You buy clips for each kind of edge | Clips matched to shingle edges, gutter lips and fascia, with nothing stapled, nailed or screwed |
Ladder and roof work | You | We do it |
Trees and shrubs | You | Trunk wraps, branch wraps, evergreens, shrubs, columns, railings and walkway lights |
When they go up | Any day you choose | Late October into early December, dry-weather dates first |
Takedown | You, in January | Part of the service, through January |
What it costs | Lights, clips, cords, a timer and your weekends | Quoted per house from roofline length, stories, pitch, trees and shrubs |
How to hang Christmas lights yourself
If you're doing it, do it in this order. Each step saves a trip up the ladder.
Measure the rooflines you want lit. Walk the house and note each edge and where your outdoor outlets are. Buy enough to reach the end of each run without stretching.
Buy lights made for outside. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says to check that lights are certified for outdoor use and to plug outdoor lights into circuits protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).
Respect the strand limit. Every box prints the number of sets that can run end to end. For incandescent sets, the CPSC's rule is to never string together more than three.
Test every strand on the ground. Plug each one in before you climb. A dead set is a five-minute fix on the driveway and a much longer one at the roof edge.
Use clips made for the edge. Shingle edges, gutter lips and fascia boards each take a different clip. Staples and nails can pierce the wire, and they leave holes in the trim.
Start at the outlet. Work away from the power so the plug ends up where you need it, with no extension cord strung across the roof.
Put the display on a timer. Then nobody has to remember to switch it on each evening.
Ladder rules that matter on a roofline
The hard part of the job is the ladder. The CPSC estimated about 14,900 emergency room visits for holiday decorating injuries between November 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023, about 160 a day, and close to half of them involved falls, according to its November 2024 safety release.
OSHA's portable ladder safety card is written for workers, and its rules apply just as well to a homeowner with a strand of lights:
Set the angle. Put the base a quarter of the ladder's working length out from the wall. A ladder with 16 feet of working length sits 4 feet out.
Extend past the edge. An extension ladder used to reach a roof should run at least 3 feet above the point it rests on.
Stay off the top. Don't stand on the top three rungs of an extension ladder.
Level, stable ground only. Frozen lawn with soft spots and a sloped bed of mulch both fail this test.
Keep the rungs dry. OSHA says rungs, steps and feet must be clear of anything slippery, and frost counts.
Three points of contact. Two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand, on the ladder while you climb. Carrying a coil of lights up a ladder breaks this rule, so have someone pass the lights up to you.
Look up first. Find the power line coming into the house before you raise a metal ladder.
The Michigan weather window
Timing decides how hard the job is. Detroit Metro averages a November low of 33.9 degrees and a December low of 25.3, with 8.9 inches of December snow, in the National Weather Service's 1991 to 2020 normals. Once frost sits on the shingles in the morning, roof work gets slow and slippery.
If you're going up yourself, pick a dry, mild day in October or early November. The lights can go up weeks before you want them on, because a timer decides the night they start. Our own installs run from late October to early December for the same reason, and dry days book up first.
January is the other half of the job
Every light you hang in the fall comes down in January, the month Detroit Metro averages 14 inches of snow and an average low of 19.2 degrees. Clips freeze to the gutters, cords freeze to the shingles, and the ladder goes up on frozen ground. Pulling on a frozen run can snap clips and drag at the gutter.
This is the part people leave out when they plan a DIY display. Budget a second cold afternoon for it, and wait for a thaw if you can. When you hire us, takedown is part of the service and runs through January.
When doing it yourself makes sense
Doing it yourself is a reasonable plan when the house is one story, the roofline is simple, and you already own outdoor lights. Lighting the front eave from a ladder on flat ground, plus a few shrubs and a front tree lit from the ground, is a good Saturday. On a ranch, the entry and the yard can carry the display, and a lot of that work needs no ladder at all.
If that describes your house, follow the steps above and enjoy it.
When to hire someone to hang Christmas lights
Hire it out when the job puts you on a tall ladder or on the roof. That means second-story eaves and peaks, a steep pitch, a roofline broken up by several gables, or any light that can only be reached by walking on shingles. The same goes for anyone who'd be on the ladder alone, and anyone who doesn't want to repeat the climb in January.
Plenty of homes in our towns fit that list. Northville township's two-story fronts put a peak high over the entry, as our Northville Christmas light installation page explains. Novi's 1990s and 2000s subdivisions stacked front gables over two-story entries, which you can see on our Novi page. Birmingham has prewar houses with steep gables and dormers on the same streets as newer two-stories with tall roofs, covered on our Birmingham page.
What to ask any installer
If you hire someone, ask these before you book, and get the answers in writing:
Who provides the lights?
Is takedown included, and when does it happen?
Is every run measured and cut to the house?
How do the lights attach to the shingles, gutters and fascia?
Which rooflines, trees and shrubs are in the price?
Our answers: we provide the lights, takedown is in January, runs are cut to the measured length of each edge, and everything is held on with clips matched to what it's holding. If price is the question, our post on what changes the cost of Christmas light installation walks through each factor.
Questions people ask
Is it hard to hang your own Christmas lights?
The lights are easy. The ladder is the hard part. On a single-story house with a plain roofline, it's a manageable Saturday. Second-story peaks, steep pitches and frosty November mornings turn it into slow, risky work, and every light you hang comes back down in January in colder weather on the same ladder.
Can you staple Christmas lights to the house?
Don't. A staple can pierce or crush the wire's insulation and leaves holes in the fascia and trim. Plastic clips made for the edge you're attaching to, whether that's a shingle edge, a gutter lip or a fascia board, hold the lights firmly and come off in January without leaving a mark.
Is it cheaper to hang your own Christmas lights?
In cash, yes, if you already own the lights and a tall enough ladder. You still buy clips, cords and a timer, replace strands that fail, and spend two cold days on a ladder. Hiring an installer costs more up front and takes the ladder, the takedown and the lights off your list.
Do Christmas light installers provide the lights?
It depends on the company. Some installers hang lights you already own, and others bring their own. We provide ours: commercial-grade LEDs on heavy-gauge wire, with each run cut to fit the edge of your house. Ask every installer you talk to, because it changes what their quote covers.
How many light strands can go on one outlet?
Check the box first. It lists the maximum number of sets that can run end to end, and the outlet's circuit has its own limit. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says never to string together more than three sets of incandescent lights, and outdoor lights belong on GFCI-protected outlets.
Get a quote
If your roofline is more ladder than you want this year, we'll take it on. We've been owner-operated in Northville since 2014, and we work in ten towns, listed on our Christmas light installation service areas page. See the full service on our Christmas light installation page, then Get a Free Quote.
