How Much Does It Cost to Hire Someone to Hang Christmas Lights in Orlando?
September 5, 2026 · 5 min read · Santa's Christmas Lighting
Type "how much does it cost to hire someone to hang Christmas lights" into Google from Orlando and you get two completely different answers. Directory sites say $200 to $400. Actual lighting companies, when they publish anything, say $800 to $2,500. Both are telling the truth about two different products. Here is how to tell them apart and what you should expect to pay in the Orlando area this season.
The two markets: labor-only vs. all-inclusive
A labor-only hang is a handyman or seasonal crew putting up lights you already own. You buy the strands, the clips and the timer, you decide where they go, and they climb. The national directory averages ($147 to $533 on Angi for Orlando, $200 to $400 on Thumbtack) are mostly this. When the job is done, the crew leaves. If a strand dies on December 20th, that is your ladder. Takedown is usually a separate charge, and storage is your garage.
An all-inclusive install is what professional holiday lighting companies sell. The company owns commercial-grade LED lights, cuts them to your roofline, installs with clips, sets a timer, comes back free when anything fails, takes it all down in January and stores it. You lease the display for the season. In Orlando that runs about $800 for a small single-story roofline to $2,500 for a large two-story with wrapped trees and garland, and more for estates.
What Orlando homeowners actually pay
- Single-story roofline, front only: $800 to $1,500. Typical in Deltona, Poinciana, Ocoee and the older parts of Orlando.
- Two-story home, both rooflines, a palm or oak wrapped: $1,200 to $2,500. Most of Lake Nona, Horizon West, Lake Mary and Hunters Creek.
- Estate with tile roof, multiple wraps, garland and landscape: $2,500 to $5,000. Windermere, Dr. Phillips, Heathrow, Winter Park.
- Showpiece: $5,000 and up.
Those are all-inclusive. If a quote is far below that, check what is missing. Usually it is the lights themselves, the maintenance, the insurance, or the takedown.
Why the gap is so big
Commercial-grade C9 LED strands cost several times what a big-box box of lights costs, and a professional display uses hundreds of feet of them plus clips matched to your roof, weatherproof cords and a timer. A company that leases those lights to you is amortizing that inventory, replacing what fails, paying for liability and workers' comp insurance on a crew that works on roofs, and coming back twice more: once when something goes dark and once in January. None of that exists in a labor-only hang, which is why it costs a fifth as much and delivers a fifth as much.
Questions to ask before you compare quotes
- Are the lights included, or am I buying them?
- Is takedown included? Is storage?
- What happens if a section goes out in December?
- Can I see your general liability and workers' comp certificates?
- Is the price per foot or for the whole design, and what is the roofline length you measured?
If the answers are "included, included, we fix it free, yes, and here is the design," you are comparing apples to apples. Our pricing page lays out exactly what is inside every number we quote, and a free quote from your address takes about two minutes.