10 Christmas Lighting Mistakes I See Every Year in North Texas

It never fails.

We see the same Christmas lighting problems every year. Half a roofline lit because the strand ran out. A dark stretch of gutter that died after the first cold rain. A ladder leaned against a gutter with nobody holding it.

None of that means somebody did a bad job. Hanging lights looks easy until you are up there. Here are the ten mistakes I see most often and how to avoid them, whether you hang your own lights this year or hand the job to us.

1. Waiting Until Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving falls on November 26 this year, and that weekend is when most people decide it is time to get the lights up. It is also when the stores are picked over, the weather is a coin flip, and every installer in the area already has a full calendar.

Holiday lighting has a deadline that nothing else we do has. Nobody wants lights hung the week after Christmas, so every installer in DFW is trying to fit a whole season into about six weeks. If you want a professional install, late October and early November is the time to get on the calendar. If you are doing it yourself, the first mild weekend in November beats a cold, rushed one after the turkey.

2. Buying Lights Before You Measure

Most people buy lights by guessing. They grab what looks like enough, get halfway across the roofline, and make a second trip to the store, where that strand is sold out or the new "warm white" is a different shade than the first batch.

Before you buy anything, measure every roofline, window, and walkway you want lit, and note where your outdoor outlets are. Pick one color temperature and stick with it, because warm white and cool white side by side look like a mistake from the street.

If you live in one of the HOA neighborhoods in Corinth, Flower Mound, or Highland Village, check your rules first. Some associations have guidelines on colors, display dates, or how soon lights come down in January.

3. Using Indoor Lights Outside

Not every strand is built for a North Texas December, which can go from 70 degrees to freezing rain in the same week. Look at the tag near the plug. A red UL holographic label means the set is rated for indoor and outdoor use. A green one means indoor only, and those do not belong on your gutters no matter how good they look on the tree inside.

While you are reading tags, check last year's strands too. Cracked sockets, frayed wire, or a set that got chewed on in the garage all go in the trash, not on the house.

4. Running Too Much Off One Outlet

Every light set has a tag that says how many strands can be safely connected end to end. Older incandescent minis often top out at just a few. LEDs go much further, but they still have a limit. Go past it and the best case is a tripped breaker. The worst case is a connection that overheats.

The same goes for the outlet. Running the whole house off one plug and a cheap extension cord from the junk drawer is how displays go dark on the first night. Use outdoor-rated cords, spread the load across more than one circuit, and put everything on an outdoor-rated timer so it is not running all night.

5. Ignoring Where the Water Goes

Outdoor outlets are supposed to be GFCI protected, which means they cut power when they sense a problem, usually water. If your lights trip that outlet every time it rains, the outlet is doing its job. The real issue is almost always a plug connection lying in the grass or sitting in a puddle.

Keep connections off the ground and pointed down so water runs off them. Do not run cords through a door or window where they get pinched every time it closes. And if part of your yard holds water after a rain, that is not the spot for your extension cord junctions.

6. Stapling or Nailing Lights to the House

I understand the appeal. A staple gun is fast and the lights stay put. But staples nick the wire insulation, and nails through shingles or fascia leave holes that let water in long after the lights come down.

Plastic clips made for gutters and shingles do the same job without damaging anything. They cost a few dollars a bag and come off clean in January. Every light we hang goes up on clips.

7. Going Up the Ladder Alone

This is the one I worry about. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates around 160 holiday decorating injuries a day during the season, and nearly half of them are falls. The doctors who treat these injuries say the biggest culprit is overreaching, usually stretching for one more clip instead of climbing down and moving the ladder.

If you are doing it yourself, have someone hold the ladder, keep three points of contact, never carry a box of lights up with one hand, and stay off the roof when it is wet or frosty. If your house is two stories with a steep pitch, think hard about whether this is a job you want to do. Honestly, this is the best reason I know to hire it out.

8. Wrapping Trees the Wrong Way

Trees are where a display goes from fine to something people slow down for, and they are also where I see the most wasted lights. Wrapping only the trunk looks like a barber pole in the yard. Wrapping branches loosely with uneven spacing looks patchy from the street.

There is also the tree itself to think about. Lights wrapped tight around a branch and left up into spring can start cutting into the bark as the branch grows. Wrap snug, not tight, keep your spacing even, and get them off once the season is over. Since we take care of trees and beds the rest of the year on the landscaping side, we wrap with next spring in mind, not just the December photo.

9. Forgetting About the Sprinkler System

Most people never think about this one, and since I fix sprinklers for a living, I see the results. If you have drip irrigation in your beds, that line usually sits just under the mulch. A light stake or yard decoration pushed into the bed can go straight through it, and you will not know until the bed starts drying out or a wet spot shows up in the spring.

Spray heads cause the opposite problem. If your system is still running its fall schedule, it is soaking your plug connections a few times a week, which brings you right back to the tripped outlet in number five. Know where your heads and lines are before you stake anything, and cut back your watering schedule before the lights go up. Our irrigation team can help with both.

10. Leaving Them Up Until Valentine's Day

Lights that stay up into February fade in the sun, clips get brittle, and some HOAs will send a letter. Taking them down in a hurry is its own mistake, though. Yanking strands off the roofline pulls clips loose, tears up shingle edges, and leaves you with a tangled box nobody wants to open next November.

Take them down the way they went up, one section at a time, and wrap each strand before it goes in the box. And if you find yourself wishing the house looked that good all year, that is what landscape lighting is for.

Or Let Us Handle It

If you have read this far and decided you would rather spend December inside with a cup of coffee, I do not blame you. We handle holiday lighting for homes across Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lake Dallas, Corinth, and Argyle. We plan the layout around your house, hang everything on clips, and come back in January to take it all down.

The calendar fills fast once November hits. Request a quote or call us at 972-684-3319 to lock in your date.

Rob Dilts

Owner

RD Services