Christmas lighting is one of those projects that looks easy from the ground and turns into a season-long ordeal the moment you actually start. Tangled strands. Burned-out runs. Two trips to the hardware store. A ladder leaned against a frozen gutter. A roof you didn't really want to walk on. A January morning realizing the lights need to come down before they stay up forever. Frosty's exists so you never have to think about any of it.
We are Chicago's complete turnkey Christmas lighting installation company. We design the display. We supply the lights. We install them on your roof, in your trees, in your wreaths, and on your grounds. We maintain them all season. We remove them in January. We store them in our warehouse between seasons. You enjoy the holiday.
What We Do
- Christmas light installation — residential and commercial, roofline and trees, designed and installed by a Frosty's crew.
- Custom holiday displays — custom-fabricated wreaths, garland, illuminated displays, oversized ornaments, and themed projects.
- Tree wrapping — hand-wrapped trunks and branches in any density, warm white or multicolor.
- Roofline lights — clean C9 and mini-light runs along eaves, peaks, dormers, and architectural features.
- Wreaths, garland, and bows — door wreaths, mantel garland, lamp-post bows, custom-scaled holiday décor.
- Ground stake displays — light pathways, define gardens, frame entries.
- Commercial Christmas lighting — hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, country clubs, multi-family communities, HOA common areas, offices, churches.
- Event lighting — weddings, corporate events, pop-up holiday markets, restaurant patios.
Our Holiday Lighting Process
1. Design
Every Frosty's project starts with a design conversation. We meet you at the property, walk the home or building, and put together a written design plan. The plan covers every roofline run, every tree, every wreath, every garland, and every accent piece — with a fixed-price quote you approve before any work happens. We design for your architecture, your taste, your neighborhood's standard, and your maintenance appetite.
2. Installation
Installation is done by trained Frosty's crews — not subcontractors, not seasonal day labor. Our installers are background-checked, insured, equipped with the right ladders and lifts for the job, and trained on proper roof-safe attachment so we don't damage shingles, gutters, or trim. A typical residential install takes 4–10 hours; larger commercial projects take 1–3 days.
3. In-Season Maintenance
Every install includes free in-season maintenance. If a strand fails mid-December, we send a crew to fix it. This is non-negotiable and built into the price.
4. Removal
Removals begin the first week of January, weather permitting, and most residential removals are complete by the end of the month. You don't lift a finger — we de-string, de-stake, take down wreaths and garland, sort, and pack everything for storage.
5. Storage
All Frosty's-supplied lights are stored in our climate-controlled warehouse between seasons. We tag each property's inventory by job number, test every strand before re-deployment, and replace failures off-season at our cost. You get the same look every year without owning, untangling, or storing anything.
Safety
Roofs are dangerous. So are extension ladders on frozen lawns in November. Roughly 5,800 Americans are injured every year hanging Christmas lights. The most common injuries are falls from height. Hiring a professional Christmas light installation company eliminates the most dangerous task on most homeowners' winter to-do list — and is by itself enough reason for many of our clients to hire us.
Our crews are equipped with the right safety gear, fall-arrest equipment for steep roofs, and lifts where ladder access isn't safe. Every Frosty's installer is fully insured.
Commercial Christmas Lighting
Commercial Christmas lighting is one of our largest service categories. We work with:
- Shopping centers and retail — synchronized roofline displays, entryway features, parking-lot tree wraps, themed displays.
- Restaurants — patio bistro lighting layered with seasonal accents, façade lighting, tree wraps, custom themed pieces.
- Hotels and hospitality — porte-cochère lighting, lobby tree installs, grand exterior displays, programmable color systems.
- Country clubs — clubhouse, member entry, golf-course tree features, holiday party staging.
- Multi-family communities — common areas, leasing office, entries, amenity buildings.
- Office parks — entry monuments, building accents, executive lobby displays.
- Churches — steeple lighting, sanctuary entries, parking-lot tree wraps for evening services.
- Municipal projects — downtown light pole installs, gazebo wrapping, holiday district displays.
Luxury Christmas Lighting
Luxury Christmas lighting is the discipline of doing more with less obvious mechanism. The goal is a magazine-cover composition: clean roofline runs, perfectly proportioned wreaths and garland, density-matched tree wraps, no visible cords, no extension boxes, no daytime ugliness. Our luxury work on the North Shore — Winnetka, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Lake Forest, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Inverness — uses our finest grade of lights, with custom-cut runs sized to every architectural detail and a level of design refinement that separates a professional install from a homeowner attempt.
HOA Christmas Lighting
We handle full-community holiday lighting for HOAs across the Chicago area. A typical HOA program includes coordinated entry signage, common-area trees and gazebos, clubhouse displays, and the option for individual homes to opt into preferred pricing on residential service. We provide HOA boards with annual proposals, line-item budgets, multi-year programs, and a single accountable point of contact through the entire season.
Residential Christmas Lighting
Residential Christmas lighting is where Frosty's was founded and remains our largest service category. We light single-family homes from cozy bungalows to estate properties. A standard residential design typically includes:
- Roofline lights along the primary eaves, peaks, and architectural detail
- Tree wraps on featured trees in the front yard
- A wreath on the front door (and additional wreaths on garage doors, gable accents, or fence gates as appropriate)
- Garland on the front porch, columns, or railings
- Optional ground stake displays for pathways and garden beds
Custom Christmas Displays
Some properties want something memorable. We design and fabricate custom displays for clients who want their home or business to be the stop-the-car project of their neighborhood — themed installations, oversized ornaments, illuminated sculptural pieces, animated displays, branded commercial features. If you can describe it, we can probably build it.
Warm White vs. Multicolor
This is the single most-asked design question. Warm white reads as elegant, classic, and timeless — the right answer for transitional and traditional architecture, luxury homes, restaurants, hotels, and most commercial work. Multicolor reads as joyful, traditional-American, and family-friendly — the right answer for many residential clients who want the look they remember from childhood. We frequently design hybrids: warm white on the roofline, multicolor on selected trees, or alternate years for variety.
Christmas Lighting Trends
- Layered density — properties that combine roofline lights, dense tree wraps, oversized wreaths, and ground stake displays for a complete look (not just roofline alone).
- Mixed color temperatures — warm white at 2700K mixed with cooler accent runs at 3000K for visual depth.
- Permanent + seasonal hybrids — homeowners installing permanent JellyFish for the roofline and pairing it with traditional Frosty's tree wraps and wreaths.
- Oversized fabricated wreaths — 4-foot, 6-foot, and 8-foot custom-built lit wreaths as feature pieces.
- Restaurant patio holiday lighting — bistro strings layered with seasonal greens for outdoor-dining warmth.
Christmas Light Installation Near Me
Frosty's installs Christmas lights throughout Chicagoland, with concentration in the North Shore, Northwest suburbs, and DuPage County. See our service area page for the full list and dedicated city pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should holiday lights be installed?+
Most North Shore and Northwest suburb installs are scheduled between mid-October and Thanksgiving week. We install on cooperative weather days and program timers to come on around Thanksgiving. Booking by September secures preferred install dates — November weekends sell out every year.
What does professional Christmas light installation cost?+
Residential Christmas lighting in the Chicago area typically runs $800–$3,500 for a full design including roofline, trees, wreaths, and ground stake displays. Larger luxury homes and commercial properties range from $4,500 to $25,000+. Pricing is fixed and quoted in writing before any work begins.
Do you use my lights or your lights?+
We use our lights. Frosty's Holiday Lighting maintains an inventory of commercial-grade C9 and mini LED strands, oversized ornaments, wreaths, garland, and custom-fabricated displays. Using our inventory means we control the quality, replace failures during the season at no cost, and store the lights properly between seasons. Your only job is to enjoy the season.
Do you take the holiday lights down?+
Yes. Removal is included in every install. We typically begin removals the first week of January, weather permitting, and complete most residential removals by the end of January. Commercial schedules are coordinated with property managers.
Do you store the lights?+
Yes. All Frosty's-supplied lighting is removed, sorted, tested, and stored in our climate-controlled warehouse between seasons. We re-deploy the same dedicated inventory to your property year after year, so you get the same look without ever owning or maintaining lights yourself.
Can you design custom Christmas displays?+
Absolutely. Custom design is one of the things we're known for. We design and fabricate custom roofline patterns, oversized wreaths, illuminated yard sculptures, themed displays for events, branded commercial displays, and large-scale animated tree displays.
Do you decorate commercial properties?+
Yes. Commercial Christmas lighting and holiday decorating is a major part of our business — shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, country clubs, multi-family communities, HOA common areas, office parks, hospitals, churches, and municipal buildings. We carry the insurance, equipment, and crew depth to handle anything from a single restaurant patio to a multi-building campus.
Do you work with HOAs?+
Yes. We handle full-community holiday lighting programs for HOAs across the Chicago area, including coordinated entry-sign displays, common-area trees and gazebos, individual home programs at preferred pricing, and uniform design standards across an entire community.
What is the difference between warm white and multicolor Christmas lights?+
Warm white reads as classic and elegant — the look of candlelight, suited to traditional, transitional, and luxury architecture. Multicolor reads as joyful and family-friendly — the look most people remember from childhood. We frequently design hybrids: warm white on the roofline, multicolor on selected trees, or warm white year-on-year with a multicolor accent year for variety. There's no wrong answer.
Do you wrap trees in lights?+
Yes. Tree wrapping is one of our most-requested services. We hand-wrap trunks and major branches in the appropriate density of mini lights for the species, height, and design intent. Wrap density typically ranges from 30 to 150 lights per linear foot depending on the look.
Can lights stay up year-round?+
Traditional seasonal Christmas lights aren't designed to stay up year-round and look out of place after January. For year-round architectural lighting that doubles as a holiday display, see our <Link to="/services/permanent-christmas-lights">permanent Christmas lights</Link> service.
What if a light goes out mid-season?+
Call us. Mid-season maintenance is included in every install — we'll dispatch a crew to repair or replace any failed runs at no additional cost.
Related Services
- Permanent Christmas Lights — JellyFish year-round programmable architectural roofline lighting.
- Landscape Lighting — the everyday landscape system that lives beneath the seasonal display.
- Commercial Outdoor Lighting — full commercial scope.