When to Take Down Your Holiday Lights? 4 Tips for Homeowners

We all love holidays for so many reasons. Those are festive days for all of us, times when families come together, socialize and enjoy each other company. It is also time for gifting and being happy in general.

Those of us that like decorating our homes and that has a big imagination love this season as well. The period around Christmas and all other following events bring out the children in us and our desire to fill our homes, our yards and the outside of our homes with lights, blow-up dolls, scenes from Christ’s birth, music and whatnot. We do let our minds and our hands wonder in this period and we turn into real children, and it’s not a bad thing.

Today we are discussing the holidays that are past us and we are talking about those lights and decorations in particular. The reason for that is that holiday light installation can sometimes get out of hand and those that put up Christmas and holiday lights are still keeping them on. We wanted to give you a heads-up about Christmas lights and decorations etiquette that you should uphold.

Stick with us till the end and find out everything you need to know if you are a homeowner.

1. When is the best time to put up Christmas lights and decorations?

When this question rises, we usually get a lot of different answers, and that is OK. There is a lot of us with a lot of different persuasions, aspirations and ideas. This time of year gets that inner child out and most of us can fight the urge to put these up as soon as possible and have our homes and our yard decorated. In some cities and parts of the state, there are even competitions with judges that pick out the best home and yard decorations and they can sometimes dictate the time when you need to put these up and take them downs.

When there is no competition and when you are the one that makes a decision it can sometimes be hard to make one because you don’t want to be the first one in your neighbourhood that jumped the gun and decorated first, and you don’t want to be the one that did everything too late and had his fingers freeze while doing the decorations. This is why we believe that the best time to do this is after Thanksgiving, but since, Thanksgiving is celebrated much earlier in Canada it is considered to be way too early to set up Christmas lights. Some argue that nothing should be turned on until at least after Remembrance Day (November 11), while others insist that nothing should be turned on until the beginning of Advent (December 1st or so).

2. When is the best time to take the holiday lights off?

Again, another highly disputable topic and one that is very specific and subjective. There are those of us that wait for all the holidays to end and a day or two after that, we are taking everything down, pack it and stow it for the next year. Some like to wait a lot longer and take these sometime mid or end of January but is that a good thing? If we are talking about some sort of holiday light etiquette then you need to know that you should take these down around or just before Three Kings Day (January 6th).

This is somewhat of a general note from most people and a period where most of us get our holiday lights and decorations down. Some are adamant to leave their year-round and some homes don’t take any of the Christmas lights down but do take off any decoration made to the house or the yard. This is OK as well as long as you don’t light any of the lights after the holidays or until you require them (like if you are making a party).

3. Can you leave the lights on 24/7?

This is another thing that is asked a lot and we see many homeowners struggling with this. Depending on your neighbourhood and the rules in it you may or may not. The etiquette states that you shouldn’t leave them all night long and that you should have consideration for your neighbours. If you have a lot of Christmas lights or decorations with a sound that will both blink and sing at the same time, then you may imagine how your neighbours may feel if you let that go 24/7?! You need to be considered and you need to respect the floor plan of your neighbours so you don’t have speakers blasting right in their bedroom or living room as well as lights blinking for 10 hours straight in the same rooms.

4. Music and sound effects

Most of us have upped our game when decorations and lights are in question. As time progresses and as we get new tech, we have transcended from regular bulbs that go off and on to those that are LED, pulse, breathe and follow the beat of the music. This means that all of us, given the fact we can afford it can now have a small disco in our yard with the following light effects on the roof and the home. This is all nice and fancy but how does it fly with our neighbours and the rules of your neighbourhood?

With the fact that sound and music are increasingly being included in Christmas light shows cars will line both sides of the street to witness your spectacular masterpiece. Aside from the traffic difficulties, leaving the same four songs on repeat for a month or two is going to grow old. Consider using music and sound effects just during peak viewing hours and turning them off by 11 p.m. This will cause a lot fewer headaches all around and will have you be a responsible homeowner and a good neighbour. These are the rules that are not that difficult to follow but are huge when it comes to your relationship with the people around your property, so be sure to follow them at least to some extent.