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Christmas light installation price calculator

For holiday lighting installers: build a price sheet from your own time per foot, the lights’ cost for one season, your trips and your overhead, then price a house with one- and two-story sections and bushes.

Example filled in: a house with 110 feet of one-story roofline, 60 feet of two-story roofline and two bushes, with leased lights (worked example 1, the same house as our pricing guide). Switch the package for customer-owned lights or a take-down-only visit.

Method from our guide: How to Price Christmas Light Installation (Per Foot, With a Worked Quote)

Leased: you own the lights and take them back in January, so each season pays a share of them. Customer’s own: no lights cost. Take-down only: one visit, take-down time only.

The house

Measure each section and round up to the next foot. Angi: a small one-story home has about 100–150 feet of lights.

Your time

What an hour of work costs you, for you or a helper. The BLS median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers was $18.82/h (2025); employer payroll taxes and workers’ comp come on top for staff.

Example: replace with your own. Time your first two or three jobs and update it.

Example: replace with your own. Taking down is usually about half the install time.

Example: replace with your own. Longer ladders and slower moves.

Lights (leased package)

Example: replace with your own. Commercial C9 socket wire plus one LED bulb a foot, from your supplier.

Example: replace with your own. Each season carries its share.

Example: replace with your own.

The job fee

IRS business rate from July 1, 2026.

Example: replace with your own.

Example: replace with your own. Insurance for ladder and roof work, ladders, marketing, phone and storage for the season.

Profit as a share of the price. 30% margin = cost ÷ 0.70.

Your cost for this job

$446.49

The lowest price to accept. Below this, the job loses money.

Market check

$350 – $800 medium two-story home (150–250 ft of lights)

  • Market range
  • Your floor
  • Your price for this house

Angi [2026 Data]: cost by home size. National figures; check local competitors.

Other published figures

  • 170 ft at Angi’s $2–$5 a linear foot$340–$850Angi [2026 Data]: price per linear foot

Your price for this house

$645.40 · $3.80 per linear foot

Your per-foot and per-bush rates times the house, plus one job fee. Each rate is your cost plus your margin, rounded up.

  • Profit on the job$198.91
  • Margin on the job31%
How the numbers are worked out
One-story: 2.25 person-min a foot × $25/h$0.94
Two-story: × 1.5$1.41
Lights’ share a foot: $1.36 ÷ 3 seasons + 10%$0.50
Rate a foot, one-story (÷ (1 − 30%), up to the next cent)$2.06
Rate a foot, two-story$2.73
Rate a bush (22.5 person-min + $11.00 net light share, up to $1)$30.00
Setup: 0.5 person-h × 2 visits × $25/h$25.00
Driving: 12 mi × 2 visits × $0.76$18.24
Clips, ties and timer share$15.00
Overhead share: $3,000 ÷ 40 jobs$75.00
Job fee (÷ (1 − margin), up to $5)$195.00
Your cost for this job$446.49
Your price$645.40

How it works

The method, step by step

Market rates tell you the ceiling. Your costs tell you the floor. Every number above is an example: replace it with your own.

  1. Labor per foot

    Install plus take-down person-minutes per foot × what a person-hour costs you ÷ 60. Two-story sections take longer: the example uses 1.5 times the one-story time. Bushes are timed per piece.

  2. The lights’ share

    For leased lights you take back in January, each job pays a share: cost per foot ÷ the seasons they last, plus an allowance for broken bulbs. Customer-owned lights have no share.

  3. A job fee for fixed costs

    Setup, testing and clean-up each visit, driving there twice, clips and timer, and a share of the season’s overhead cost about the same on a small ranch as on a big house, so they go in one job fee instead of the per-foot rate.

  4. Margin and rounding

    Each rate is cost ÷ (1 − margin): a 30% margin divides by 0.70. Rates per foot are rounded up to the next cent, bushes up to $1 and the job fee up to $5. Then compare the total with Angi’s ranges.

Example: replace with your own

These inputs in the calculator and the worked examples have no published source behind them. Use your own numbers.

  • Time per foot: 1.5 person-minutes to install and 0.75 to take down one-story roofline; two-story takes 1.5 times as long
  • Lights: $1.36 a foot (C9 wire and LED bulbs), lasting 3 seasons, plus 10% for broken bulbs
  • Season overhead: $3,000 over 40 jobs
  • Cost of a person-hour ($25) and margin (30%) are choices, not market figures

Worked examples

3 houses, priced with this calculator

Each example is worked out by the calculator above, with the same formula. Open one to see every line, then change it to your own numbers.

  1. Example 1

    Two heights, leased lights

    The example filled in above: 110 ft of one-story and 60 ft of two-story roofline, two bushes with net lights, leased C9 LED lights, $25 a person-hour and a 30% margin. The same house as our pricing guide.

    Your cost for this job
    $446.49
    Market check
    $350–$800
    Your price for this house
    $645.40$3.80 per linear foot
    Profit on the job
    $198.91
    Margin on the job
    31%

    Inside Angi’s $350–$800 range for a medium two-story home, above its $450 average: a prompt to check your timing, not to cut the price.

    Open example 1 in the calculator

  2. Example 2

    Small ranch, 100 feet

    A one-story ranch with 100 ft of roofline and no bushes, same rates.

    Your cost for this job
    $276.99
    Market check
    $200–$450
    Your price for this house
    $401.00$4.01 per linear foot
    Profit on the job
    $124.01
    Margin on the job
    31%

    The job fee is most of the price on a small house, which is why a flat per-foot price would undercharge it.

    Open example 2 in the calculator

  3. Example 3

    Take-down only

    The owner hung their own lights on a 110 ft ranch and pays you to take them down: one visit, take-down time only, half the overhead share.

    Your cost for this job
    $93.50
    Your price for this house
    $134.50$1.22 per linear foot
    Profit on the job
    $41.00
    Margin on the job
    30%

    One short visit with its own fee: a January add-on for customers who do their own install.

    Open example 3 in the calculator

Market rates

Christmas light installation prices in 2026

Angi’s figures come from surveys of its customers and cover what homeowners pay; the page shows no date beyond “2026 Data”. Angi doesn’t say whether its ranges include take-down, so compare like with like and check local installers.

WhatRangeSource
Professional Christmas light installation, national average$443; most pay $220–$683Angi
Price per linear foot$2–$5Angi
Small one-story home, 100–150 ft of lights$200–$450 (average $250)Angi
Medium two-story home, 150–250 ft$350–$800 (average $450)Angi
Large three-story home, 250–400 ft$700–$1,500 (average $900)Angi
Estate or custom display, 400+ ft$1,000–$2,500 (average $1,200)Angi
Installer labor$60–$100 an hourAngi
Landscaping and groundskeeping workers, median wage$18.82 an hour (2025)O*NET OnLine (U.S. Department of Labor)
Business mileage rate76 cents a mile (from July 1, 2026)IRS

Sources

  1. Angi: How Much Does Professional Christmas Light Installation Cost? [2026 Data] (no date shown (the title says 2026 Data); from surveys of Angi customers, no project count given; read Nov 14, 2026)
  2. O*NET OnLine (U.S. Department of Labor): National Wages: 37-3011.00 Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data: median $39,150 a year, $18.82 an hour; read Nov 14, 2026)
  3. IRS: Standard mileage rates (76 cents a mile for business use from July 1, 2026; read Nov 8, 2026)

Cost guides publish estimates from their own marketplace or listing data, not audited statistics. US figures only.

Related

Questions

Pricing questions

How much do you charge per foot to install Christmas lights?

Angi’s 2026 data puts it at about $2 to $5 per linear foot. Your own rate should come from your time, the lights and your costs: in the example, $2.06 a foot for one-story roofline and $2.73 for two-story, plus a $195 job fee.

Should two-story houses cost more?

Yes. Longer ladders and slower moves take more time, so price two-story sections at their own per-foot rate. The example uses 1.5 times the one-story time; time your own jobs and change it.

Is take-down included in the price?

It should be for jobs where you supply the lights: the calculator adds take-down time to each foot and the second trip to the job fee. Use the take-down-only package for customers who hung their own lights.

What should I charge if the customer owns the lights?

Drop the lights’ share and keep the labor and job fee. Older strands fail more often, so add time for testing and swapping bulbs, and put in writing who pays for strands that fail.

Why a job fee instead of one flat per-foot price?

Driving twice, setup and overhead cost about the same on any house. A single per-foot price undercharges small houses and overcharges big ones; the job fee also works as your minimum charge.

How many seasons do leased lights last?

It depends on the lights and how you store them. The example spreads commercial C9 LED lights over three seasons and adds 10% for broken bulbs; check your own after each season and change the numbers.

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