Having Christmas lights professionally installed in Seattle costs about $255 to $564, with an average near $396, according to Angi's Seattle guide. National guides land close to that, and a two-story house or a complicated roofline can go well above it. Price isn't the only question, though. You'll also want to decide whose lights go up, make sure takedown is covered, and think about a ladder on a wet roofline. Here's what to know before you hire someone or get out your own ladder.
What Christmas light installation costs
Angi's Seattle guide, updated in November 2025, puts a professional install at about $255 to $564, with an average of $396. Modernize, a home improvement lead-generation site, puts the national average at about $442 for a standard home. An older Bob Vila guide, updated in 2022, lands nearly in the same place, with a typical range of $218 to $663 and an average of $437. Angi also makes its money connecting homeowners with contractors, so treat all of these as rough scale.
Rows not marked Seattle are national. Those are starting points. Modernize's author reports a $1,700 quote for the front and sides of a two-story home, roughly five times what the author expected.
The guides don't agree on how Seattle compares. Angi's Seattle average sits below the national figures, while Modernize's regional table lists $500 to $1,200 for metro and suburban homes in the Northeast and West, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts Seattle-area construction wages at a mean of $42.11 an hour in May 2025, against $31.42 nationally. Use these numbers for scale, and get a real one for your house.
What moves the price
Modernize lists multi-story homes, complex or steep rooflines, tree or landscape lighting and lights provided by the installer as the things that raise a price. It also notes the simplest way to bring one down: "Rooflines only are cheaper than wrapping trees or fences."
Before you ask for an estimate, it helps to walk the outside of the house and decide what you want lit. The roofline facing the street, the whole house, windows, a tree in the front yard or a fence each change the job.
Your lights or the installer's
Pacific West installs Christmas lights both ways: you supply the lights, or we supply them. Either way, install and takedown are part of the service. Neither is the right answer for everyone.
Using your own lights makes sense if you already have a good set and like how it looks. Modernize says it can save $100 to $200. The catch is condition. Lights that have spent years in a garage need a real inspection before they go on a roof, and they need to be long enough for the run.
Having the installer supply them makes sense if your lights are old or don't cover the roofline, or if you'd rather not store and sort them. Bob Vila notes that some homeowners buy lights through the installer, and others rent them for the short season, so ask which you're getting. The answer tells you what you're paying for.
If you're supplying your own, check them first. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says to use only lights tested by a nationally recognized laboratory and to check labels "to be sure that the lights have been certified for outdoor use." Its older tips add a simple inspection: look for "broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections," and "throw out damaged sets."
Old lights can also limit how far a run goes. CPSC says: "Never string together more than three sets of incandescent lights and never overload electrical outlets." And ENERGY STAR says a certified decorative light string uses "approximately 70% less energy than an incandescent light string," which is one reason people replace older sets.
Takedown belongs in the price
The install gets all the attention, but the lights have to come down too. Takedown means a second trip up the ladder, and by January, Seattle is still in its rainy stretch. NOAA's climate normals for Sea-Tac show 5.78 inches of rain in a normal January, with about 13 days of a tenth of an inch or more.
Don't assume it's included. Modernize says "many companies include takedown in their quote, but it's worth confirming before booking," and it lists removal at $100 to $400 when it's sold separately. So get the takedown in the estimate, and ask for the install and takedown timing while you're at it.
Our two options, your lights or ours, both include install and takedown.
Why people hire this out: ladders and wet roofs
CPSC reports that about 14,900 people were treated in emergency rooms for holiday decorating injuries in its 2023 holiday season, November 2022 through January 2023, the latest count we could find. It counts about 160 Christmas decorating injuries a day during the season, "with nearly half of the injuries involving falls."
Seattle makes that harder. A normal November brings 6.31 inches of rain and December 5.72, with rain of a tenth of an inch or more on about 12 or 13 days each month. Hanging lights is the kind of job people do on a free weekend, whatever the weather is doing that day.
If you're doing it yourself, one story with level ground, on a dry and calm day, is a reasonable job. OSHA's ladder card and a construction safety alert cover the basics, written for job sites and just as useful at home:
The points about the roof and the power line to your house are our own advice. Aluminum ladders conduct electricity, and the same alert warns that even wet or dirty wood or fiberglass ones can. Seattle City Light tells everyone to assume "any overhead wire is energized unless utility authorities confirm otherwise," and its number for line questions is (206) 684-3000.
How lights attach, and how they get power
Two practical questions are worth asking any installer.
How will the lights attach? CPSC says to fasten outdoor lights securely "to protect the lights from wind damage," and to use "only insulated staples (not nails or tacks)" or to "run strings of lights through hooks." Ask what will touch your roof, gutters and trim, and what's left behind after takedown. If a fascia board or trim is soft where lights would attach, that's a problem to fix first, and it's the kind of exterior repair we do separately.
How will they get power? In this guide, light installation means hanging lights and plugging them into outlets the house already has. For outdoor lights, CPSC says to "only plug them into a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protected receptacle or a portable GFCI." Look at where your outdoor outlets are before you settle on a design, because they can shape what's practical. CPSC also says that if you use an extension cord, "make sure it is rated for the intended use." Outdoors, that means one rated for outdoor use, with the connections kept up off wet ground.
Are the lights factory-assembled? Washington's Department of Labor and Industries says firms installing "unaltered, off-the-shelf products" don't need to be licensed electrical contractors. Firms that design and install custom, cut-to-fit lighting do, and those installations also need permits and inspections. So ask whether your strings will be cut to length or used as they came from the factory. Pacific West hangs off-the-shelf, factory-assembled strings as they come, and we don't cut or splice any wire. Anything that needs new wiring or an outlet is a job for a licensed electrician.
Once they're up, CPSC's advice is to "turn off all holiday lights when you go to bed or leave the house." A timer makes that easy to keep up with, and it's worth asking about one when the install is planned.
This guide covers seasonal lights that go up and come down each year. Permanent track-mounted systems are a different product with different pricing.
If you manage a property or live in an HOA
Before you approve a design, check your association's rules and find out who has to sign off. On a shared building, ask which outlets are available, whose power the lights will use, and how residents should be told about the install and takedown days. Write those answers down before you ask for an estimate, because each one can change the scope.
How to get a number for your lights
Washington's Department of Labor and Industries suggests comparing at least three written estimates and using its contractor lookup to check registration, bond and insurance. Our post on checking a contractor's registration walks through it. Pacific West's registration number is PACIFWC905PQ. Whoever you compare, a useful estimate should make these clear:
If you'd like one from us, walk the house, take a few photos from the street and tell us what you want lit and whose lights you'd like to use. We'll follow up with a free estimate where each cost is its own line. Seattle and the Eastside, including Bellevue, are where we work most. Our areas we serve page lists the rest. Tell us your address and the job when you reach out, and we'll let you know if it's a fit. Call (206) 860-6901 or request an estimate online.