Holiday lights can do more than make a commercial property look festive.
A well-designed display can create a more inviting entrance, help a business stand out after dark, reinforce its brand, and make the property feel ready for the holiday season.
But commercial Christmas lighting requires more planning than hanging a few strings of lights around a storefront.
Businesses have to consider building size, customer traffic, visibility from the street, power availability, installation safety, weather exposure, maintenance, and the timing of both installation and removal.
Whether you manage a retail store, restaurant, office building, apartment community, shopping center, or other commercial property, planning early can make the entire process easier.
Here is what to consider when designing commercial Christmas lights for your business.
Start Planning Before the Holiday Rush
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is waiting until November to start thinking about holiday lighting.
By then, professional installation schedules can already be filling up.
The best time to start planning is generally in late summer or early fall. That gives you time to:
- Decide what areas of the property should be decorated.
- Establish a budget.
- Choose colors and a design style.
- Review available power sources.
- Schedule installation.
- Make changes before installation begins.
Ware Landscaping begins installing Christmas lights in early November and aims to complete installations by Thanksgiving.
For a commercial property, booking ahead is particularly helpful because larger displays may require more design work, materials, access equipment, and installation time than a typical residential project.
Decide What You Want the Display to Accomplish
Before selecting individual lights, think about the purpose of the display.
Different businesses may have different goals.
A retail store may want to attract attention from passing drivers and create a welcoming entrance for holiday shoppers.
A restaurant may want lighting that adds atmosphere without overwhelming the building.
An office property may prefer a clean, elegant display that looks professional for employees, tenants, and visitors.
An apartment or condominium community may want to emphasize entrances, common areas, trees, and landscaping.
Ask yourself:
- Should the display be visible from the street?
- Is the main priority the entrance?
- Do you want something understated or highly decorative?
- Should the lighting complement your company’s existing colors?
- Are there architectural features worth highlighting?
- Which areas receive the most customer or pedestrian traffic?
Answering those questions before choosing lights helps create a coordinated display instead of a collection of unrelated decorations.
Identify the Most Important Lighting Zones
Not every part of a commercial property needs the same amount of decoration.
A stronger display often comes from identifying a few high-impact areas and creating a visual hierarchy.
Rooflines
Roofline lighting outlines the shape of a building and provides visibility from a distance.
C9 LED lights are particularly effective for rooflines because their larger bulbs remain visible from streets, parking lots, and across larger commercial properties.
A consistent line around prominent roof edges can make even a relatively simple display look polished.
Entrances
Your entrance is one of the most important areas to decorate because almost every visitor sees it.
Garland, wreaths, lighting around architectural features, and nearby landscaping can create a clear focal point.
For businesses with multiple entrances, consider whether every doorway requires equal decoration or whether the main customer entrance should receive the strongest treatment.
Trees
Existing trees offer significant opportunities for commercial holiday lighting.
Wrapping tree trunks and selected branches with mini LED lights can create height and depth without adding temporary structures or large decorations.
Trees near roadways, entrances, patios, and gathering areas typically provide the greatest visual impact.
Shrubs and Landscape Beds
Shrub lighting helps connect the building to the surrounding landscape.
Mini lights can illuminate groups of shrubs, while stake lighting can outline flower beds, pathways, and other landscape features.
Ware Landscaping uses both shrub lighting and stake lighting in its holiday lighting designs to help create continuity between the roofline and landscape.
Signs and Street-Facing Areas
If your business has a monument sign or highly visible street frontage, consider how the holiday display looks from the perspective of passing traffic.
You do not necessarily need to place lights directly on the sign.
Instead, strategically lighting nearby trees, shrubs, rooflines, or beds can draw attention toward the property while keeping business signage clearly visible.
Choose a Consistent Color Scheme
Commercial Christmas lighting usually looks better when the colors are intentional.
Classic warm white lighting creates a clean, elegant appearance and works well for professional offices, restaurants, hotels, and upscale properties.
Multicolor lights can create a more playful atmosphere for retail locations, entertainment businesses, and family-oriented properties.
You can also use your company’s branding as inspiration.
If your logo already relies heavily on one or two colors, complementary holiday lighting can make the property feel more cohesive.
Avoid using too many competing colors, bulb styles, and decoration types unless an intentionally elaborate display is the goal.
Consistency often has more visual impact than simply adding more lights.
Use Commercial-Quality Outdoor Lighting
Outdoor holiday lights must withstand conditions that indoor decorations never encounter.
Chicago-area displays may face rain, snow, ice, wind, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles during the season.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends using lights specifically rated for outdoor use when they will be installed outside. Damaged wiring, cracked sockets, and unsuitable extension cords can create electrical and fire hazards.
Businesses should also use equipment appropriate for the environment rather than relying on inexpensive indoor light sets for exterior displays.
Professional-grade LED lighting provides several advantages for commercial properties, including:
- Lower energy use than traditional incandescent bulbs.
- Reduced heat output.
- Long operating life.
- Bright and consistent illumination.
- Greater flexibility for large installations.
Ware Landscaping uses energy-efficient LED lighting in its Christmas lighting packages.
Plan the Electrical Layout Before Installation
A beautiful design still needs a safe and practical way to receive power.
Before installation, determine where exterior receptacles are located and how different lighting zones will connect to them.
The electrical plan should account for:
- Number of light strands.
- Electrical load.
- Extension cord ratings.
- Outdoor exposure.
- Location of plugs and connections.
- Timer or lighting-control requirements.
- Protection from customer and employee foot traffic.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that outdoor holiday lighting be connected to GFCI-protected receptacles and that extension cords be rated for their intended use.
OSHA also treats Christmas decorative lighting as temporary wiring. Its electrical standard permits temporary wiring for Christmas decorative lighting for a period not exceeding 90 days and requires temporary wiring to be removed after its purpose is complete.
For a larger business display, electrical planning should happen before crews begin hanging lights, not after half the property has already been decorated.
Think About Customers, Employees, and Pedestrian Traffic
Commercial lighting has to coexist with people using the property every day.
Extension cords should not become trip hazards across sidewalks or entrances.
Decorations should not interfere with:
- Doors and emergency exits.
- Accessible entrances.
- Handrails.
- Walkways.
- Parking spaces.
- Loading areas.
- Snow removal operations.
- Building signage.
Lights and decorations should also be secured against wind and winter weather.
These considerations become especially important at shopping centers, restaurants, apartment communities, medical offices, and other locations with regular pedestrian traffic.
Coordinate Christmas Lights With Snow Removal
This is an easy detail to overlook in Chicagoland.
Holiday lighting and snow removal happen at the same property during the same months.
Stake lights positioned along landscape beds, walkways, or parking areas should be installed with snow-clearing operations in mind.
Likewise, electrical cords, ground-level decorations, and temporary elements should not be placed where plows, snow blowers, shoveling crews, or deicing operations are likely to damage them.
When the same property has both professional snow management and holiday lighting, planning the two services together can reduce avoidable problems.
Plan for Maintenance Throughout the Season
Installation is not the end of a commercial lighting project.
Winter weather, wind, falling branches, electrical issues, and accidental damage can affect a display after it has been installed.
For a business, one dark section of lights can be particularly noticeable because customers may see the property every day.
Before hiring a commercial Christmas light installer, ask what happens when something stops working.
A complete service should address:
- Burned-out or failed lights.
- Loose decorations.
- Weather-related problems.
- Electrical issues.
- Adjustments during the season.
Ware Landscaping provides ongoing adjustments during the holiday season as part of its professional lighting service.
That means the business does not have to assign an employee to climb a ladder every time part of the display needs attention.
Include Removal in the Plan
Taking commercial Christmas lights down can require almost as much work as installing them.
Plan removal before the lights ever go up.
Temporary lighting left on a building for months can deteriorate and may no longer fit the appearance you want after the holiday season.
Ware Landscaping typically removes its displays during the second and third weeks of January, depending on weather conditions.
Professional removal also helps avoid rushed takedowns that can damage lights, landscaping, gutters, roofing, or other parts of the property.
Should a Business Hire a Professional Christmas Light Installer?
Small ground-level displays may be manageable for some businesses.
Larger commercial properties are different.
Installing lighting along rooflines, tall trees, and other elevated areas introduces fall hazards and electrical considerations. Businesses also have to consider employee time, equipment, insurance, maintenance, and removal.
Professional commercial Christmas light installation can provide:
- Custom display planning.
- Commercial-quality lighting.
- Proper installation equipment.
- Safer access to roofs and trees.
- A coordinated electrical layout.
- Installation before the holiday season.
- Maintenance while the display is operating.
- Professional removal afterward.
It also allows employees to focus on their regular jobs instead of turning holiday decorating into another facility-management project.
A Simple Commercial Christmas Light Planning Checklist
Before approving your display, make sure you have considered:
- Goals: What should customers or visitors notice first?
- Budget: How much do you want to invest in the display?
- Timeline: When should installation be completed?
- Rooflines: Which parts of the building should be outlined?
- Entrances: How will you create a welcoming focal point?
- Trees and shrubs: Which landscaping features should be illuminated?
- Colors: What lighting palette suits the business?
- Power: Are suitable outdoor electrical sources available?
- Traffic: Will cords or decorations interfere with walkways?
- Snow removal: Are lighting elements clear of plowing and shoveling areas?
- Maintenance: Who handles problems after installation?
- Removal: When and how will everything come down?
Planning each of these details ahead of time can make installation much smoother.
Start Planning Your Commercial Christmas Lights Early
The most successful commercial holiday displays are usually planned before the first snowflake falls.
Start by identifying the parts of your property customers see most. Choose a consistent style, determine how the display will be powered, account for pedestrian and snow-removal needs, and schedule installation before the busiest part of the season.
Ware Landscaping provides professional Christmas light installation for homes and businesses throughout Chicago, Naperville, Barrington, Hinsdale, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, and surrounding Chicagoland communities.
Our team handles the process from planning and installation through seasonal maintenance and removal, including roofline lights, tree wraps, shrub lighting, garland, wreaths, and stake lighting.
Request a free quote today and start planning your business’s holiday display before the installation calendar fills up.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should a business schedule commercial Christmas light installation?
It is best to begin planning in late summer or early fall, especially for larger commercial properties. Ware Landscaping begins installations in early November and aims to complete displays by Thanksgiving, so scheduling early provides more time for design and preparation.
What type of Christmas lights are best for a business?
LED lights are a strong choice for commercial displays because they are energy-efficient, long-lasting, and well suited to larger installations. Outdoor lighting should be specifically rated for exterior use.
What areas of a commercial property should be decorated?
Rooflines, entrances, trees, shrubs, landscape beds, and highly visible street-facing areas usually provide the strongest visual impact. The right combination depends on the architecture and how visitors approach the property.
Can commercial Christmas lights stay up all winter?
Holiday lighting is intended to be temporary. OSHA regulations permit temporary wiring for Christmas decorative lighting for no more than 90 days in covered workplace applications. Ware Landscaping generally removes its installations during the second and third weeks of January, weather permitting.
Does professional Christmas light installation include removal?
With Ware Landscaping, yes. The service includes planning, professional installation, seasonal adjustments, and removal after the holidays.
Can commercial Christmas lights be customized to match a business?
Yes. Color choices, roofline patterns, tree lighting, garland, wreaths, shrub lights, and other elements can be combined to create a display that suits the property’s architecture and the atmosphere the business wants to create.
