What You’re Really Spending on Christmas Lights Every Year

Aug 14, 2026

I had a conversation last fall that stuck with me. A guy in Chandler was asking about permanent trim, and partway through he said something like, well, that’s a lot of money compared to just having somebody hang lights. Fair enough. It is more money up front....

Why I Tell People to Book Their Holiday Lights in August

Aug 6, 2026

I start booking Christmas light installs in August. People give me a hard time about it. It was 112 yesterday and I had two holiday design visits scheduled. But there’s a reason I do it this way, and it’s not marketing. Every November I have to call people...

Do Permanent Trim Lights Raise Your Power Bill? Let’s Do the Math

Jul 25, 2026

I get asked this on probably half of my quotes and I’ve never written it down anywhere, so here it is. Short answer: no, not really. It’s a few dollars a month for most houses. Less than your Wi-Fi. But people don’t believe me when I say it that...

Why the Lights at the End of Your Run Are Dimmer Than the Rest

Jul 18, 2026

This is one of those problems where people live with it for years and just assume that’s how it is. You walk out front, the first couple of fixtures near the transformer look great, and then as you go down the line they get progressively sadder. The last one out...

Outdoor Lighting Gets More Important as You Get Older

Jul 13, 2026

I do a lot of work out in Sun City and Sun City West, and a few years back I started noticing something about those jobs that I hadn’t really thought about before. The conversations were different. In Gilbert or Chandler people mostly want to talk about how it’s going...

What Arizona’s Dark Sky Rules Actually Mean for Your Outdoor Lighting

Jul 7, 2026

Got a call from a guy in Fountain Hills back in the spring. He was pretty worked up. He’d put in landscape lighting himself, big weekend project, and somebody had said something to him about the dark sky ordinance and now he was convinced he was going to have to pull...