Let There Be Light: To Ensure a Fabulous Holiday Display, Look to The Professionals
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Want incredible Christmas lights like Highland Park Village? Hire a professional. (Photos: Sarah Beauregard)
The cool weather has set in, Thanksgiving has passed and the holiday season is upon us. That means it’s time to pull out your festive sweaters, create your party menus, and make a plan for your holiday lights. Of course the exquisite Highland Park Village lights come to mind as we think about our city’s most stunning holiday display. That’s why we chatted with Christmas Light Company, who annually installs the Village’s lights, and many of our city’s grandest displays — the Galleria, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and the Hilton Anatole — to learn the ins-and-outs of Christmas light installations.
“Right now LED Lights are popular,” General Manager of Christmas Light Company, Antonio Garcia says. “They use 90 percent less power.”
He explains that it’s important you hire a professional company that knows the difference between LED and incandescent lights, because to the eye, the lights look the same.
As far as hiring contractors is concerned, Garcia suggests you do your research before letting someone install your lights.
“Look out for regular landscapers, firemen, who are not professional lighting installers. If they don’t know how to work with power they can easily burn someone’s house up,” Garcia says. “You will find that a lot of people say they have workman’s comp, but it’s usually only on the business owner and partner — contractors are not employees so if they fall off a ladder it’s on the property owner, not the business owner.”
Christmas Light Company covers all of their employees in case of emergency, thereby protecting the homeowner. And lucky for us, Christmas Light Company works with all budgets from $1,000 up to — well, the sky is literally the limit.
Garcia says they can wrap every limb and branch on a tree to make it glow so bright. And there’s no limit when it comes to religion too. “We’ve done many menorahs and blue-and-white lights,” he adds.
Leave it to the pros and the only work you have to do is decide how bright and blingy you want your home to be this holiday.
Rachael Abrams is a personal chef and freelance writer who is obsessed with home decor and practically mainlines Pinterest. Find out more about Rachael and her excellent taste by following her on Twitter.
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Great piece. It’s definitely more expensive to have these bonded and insured companies install lights, but well worth it especially if you plan to light up a huge tree. I hired a local company for $1000 last year and the lights kept going off, or half the tree was lit, total waste that money could have been donated to Genesis and fed some hungry babies. I still love the look of a lit up tree. This year, I ordered pink lights and am putting them up on my front bushes in honor of my new grand angels…
Great advice that is really overlooked by many. I also wanted to say if you are hiring a company, make sure that they are CLIPA certified. This program makes all their installers go through a training course to ensure safety for the property owner and installers, making it the new norm. There are also a lot of great companies that have warranty’s on their work throughout the season & if you buy your lights with them give warranties on those lights. Christmas Light Company is an amazing company that has done exceptional work but if you’re looking for alternatives in Dallas keep this advice in mind. Also we have our own company that is smaller but growing every year, http://www.oholylightsdallas.com.