Decided in December: How Late You Can Order Permanent Lights and Still Have Them On for Christmas

The calls change after Thanksgiving

In September, people call to ask what permanent lighting costs. By the last week of November the question is different. The house across the street is already lit, family is driving in, and the plan to sort out lights "after the holidays get closer" has run out of road. The call usually opens with some version of "I know it's probably too late, but."

Plenty of those callers have never had lights professionally installed. One Kingston homeowner told us exactly that last November. She had never had lights put up and wasn't sure what the options even were. That is normal, and it is part of why late decisions feel harder than they are. When you don't know what the steps are, you assume there are more of them.

With seasonal lights, the "too late" instinct is often right. The install calendar fills in booking order and is close to full by December, which our post on when to book Christmas light installation in Knoxville walks through. Permanent lights work differently, and the answer in early December is usually better than people expect.

Why the clock runs differently in North Knoxville and the edges of the metro

Our crews run out of the office on Midway Road in Oak Ridge. That puts Oak Ridge, Karns and Hardin Valley close in, and it puts North Knoxville, Powell and the Roane County side of the metro a longer drive out. Distance doesn't change the order of the steps, but it does mean a late install on the far side of the metro has less slack for a rescheduled rain day.

North Knoxville also has a mix of housing that changes how a roofline gets planned. Older streets around Fountain City and the Gibbs Drive area sit next to newer builds heading out toward Powell. Older rooflines tend to be less uniform from house to house, so the design takes a closer look before anything gets ordered.

Some North Knoxville streets also sit inside city historic overlays. Old North Knoxville is one of the districts with its own design guidelines through Knoxville-Knox County Planning. The Historic Zoning Commission meets about once a month, with meetings on the calendar for November 19 and December 17 this year. We are not saying permanent lighting needs a review in every overlay. Check with Planning before you order if your house is in one, because a monthly meeting does not bend to a Christmas deadline.

Then there is the weather. December in Knoxville averages a high of 51 and a low just under 33, with about five inches of precipitation for the month, according to National Weather Service normals for Knoxville. Crews do not work rooflines in heavy rain or ice, so a wet week in mid-December slides every install behind it.

December is also the month the lights work hardest. In Knoxville the sun sets around 5:22 in the first part of December, the earliest of the year, based on NOAA's solar calculator. It is dark well before dinner for most of the month, which is exactly why people want the roofline lit by then.

Three late decisions from last season

Three jobs from last season show how late is still workable, and why the one December caller went permanent.

• North Knoxville, permanent, decided December 2. This homeowner had already decided he liked the look of permanent lights better than a string of seasonal bulbs. The only thing holding him back was timing. He did not want to commit if the system would not be up before Christmas. He said yes on December 2, with the run including the dormer above the garage, and the system was lit before Christmas.
• Kingston, seasonal, booked mid-November. This one started on November 10, when the homeowner asked to get her own house on the schedule. The next day we sent a rough mockup of the front roofline on a photo of her house. Her reply was honest: she would love more if possible, but she'd never had lights installed and didn't know what was available. So the design team put together several mockups with different color options and added the ridgelines. On November 13 she picked red, white and green and approved the proposal. The lights were up on November 20, one week after approval and ten days after her first message.

She was also pricing a second, larger property where the decision sat with a board, and she had asked for both seasonal and permanent quotes on it. Our office checked in on November 24 to let her know the permanent lights take about two weeks to ship, so the window to order for Christmas was closing. The board had not decided yet. That is the part people miss about late decisions. The clock starts when the person who signs off says yes, not when you first ask.

• A front roofline, called in the Saturday before Thanksgiving week. This customer heard about our lighting from one of our sister company's service techs who was treating his yard. He called on a Saturday asking for the front of the house only. A front-only roofline is the easiest job to fit into a tight late calendar, and his was done before Christmas too.

None of these three called in September, and all three had lights for Christmas. The seasonal jobs worked because they were booked in November and kept simple enough to fit. The December caller went permanent, because that is the option the December calendar still has room for.

What homeowners usually try instead

Most late deciders try one of four things first, and each has a catch.

• Waiting for the post-Thanksgiving sales and doing it themselves. Store strings are cheap that weekend, and plenty of people climb up the first Saturday in December. The trouble is the climb. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated about 15,000 holiday decorating injuries in emergency rooms during one November and December, and falls were the most common type, at 34 percent, according to its holiday decorating injury report. Our post on DIY vs professional Christmas lights in Knoxville covers what else tends to go wrong.
• Asking for quotes and sitting on them. Getting both seasonal and permanent numbers is smart. Holding them until mid-December is where the window closes, especially on permanent, where the track has to be ordered and shipped.
• Waiting on a group decision. An HOA, a historic board, a building committee or just a spouse who is out of town all count. Each one adds days, and the order cannot go in until they say yes.
• Calling a seasonal installer in December. Some will have an opening. Most will have a remaining slot, a simplified design and little say over the day.

What has to happen between yes and lights on

A JellyFish permanent lighting system is built for your house, not pulled off a shelf. There are five steps between saying yes and seeing it lit, and knowing them is what makes the December math work.

1. The consult and measurement. We measure the roofline, look at the fascia and drip edge, and find a sensible spot for the controller and power. This is also where we compare JellyFish and Bosso Smart Lighting for your particular roofline.
2. Seeing the design. If you can't picture it, ask for a mockup. The Kingston homeowner went from a single rough line to several color options with the ridgelines added, and chose in two days. A clear picture early saves days of back and forth later. Our post on Christmas light design ideas for Knoxville homes is a good place to start thinking about what to light.
3. Approving the quote. Nothing gets ordered until you approve it, and the quote is fixed. A late decision does not mean a rushed number.
4. Ordering the track. Permanent track is color-matched to your trim so it reads as part of the house in daylight. Because it is made for your home, it takes about two weeks to ship. This is the longest wait in the whole process, and it is why your decision date matters more than your install date.
5. Install day and the app walkthrough. Most homes are done in a single visit. The crew mounts the track, runs and hides the wiring, and tests every zone before leaving. Wood soffits take longer to work with than aluminum, and a house with several gables and dormers takes longer than a straight ranch roofline, but either way it is typically one day. The controller connects to your home Wi-Fi and runs from an app on your phone, so plan to be home at the end. We set up the app with you and build your first scenes together, including the Christmas one. Our post on how permanent outdoor lighting is installed on Knoxville homes covers that day in detail.

What to have ready before the consult

A late decision goes faster when a few answers are already settled. None of this takes long, and all of it saves a day somewhere.

• Which sides of the house matter. Most North Knoxville streets are seen from the front, so the front elevation carries nearly all of the effect. A corner lot or a house set up on a rise may be seen from two sides. Decide which ones count before the measuring starts.
• The dormers and the garage. Dormers are where a plan changes most. The North Knoxville job included the dormer above the garage, and that call is better made at the design stage than on install day. Look at your own dormers and decide whether they read as part of the roofline from the street.
• Where the controller can live. The controller needs power and a spot out of the weather, and on many homes that ends up in the garage. It also connects to the home Wi-Fi, so it helps to know whether the signal reaches that corner of the house. A weak signal in the garage is an easy fix ahead of time and an annoying one at the end of install day.
• Who else has to say yes. If a spouse, an HOA or a board needs to see the design, line that up now so the mockup goes straight to them.

Working backward from Christmas

Put those steps on a calendar and the rough cutoff looks like this.

• Approve by about the first week of December. That leaves about two weeks for the track to ship and a few days of cushion for scheduling and weather. The North Knoxville homeowner approved on December 2 and was lit in time.
• Give approvals a head start. If an HOA, a board or a historic review is involved, the order cannot go in until they sign off. Our post on permanent lighting and HOA rules in Knoxville covers what to submit so it moves quickly. If a group has to decide, start the conversation in early November.
• Plan around rain. A wet stretch in the second week of December pushes installs back, and there are fewer days left to make it up.
• Allow more time for a bigger house. A full perimeter on a large two-story is more track and more install time than a front elevation. If the whole house is on the list, call earlier.

This is a realistic range, not a promise for every house. The only way to know for sure is to get measured and see where the calendar stands.

Why a December seasonal install is a harder sell

By December the seasonal install season is mostly spoken for. There are occasional openings, but the bigger issue is what you get for the money.

"If you get your install on December 10th, you don't have a lot of days left till Christmas to actually enjoy the lights," says Brandon Robertson, co-owner of New Age Lights. Someone who had seasonal lights up in early November gets close to two months of use. A December install costs the same and gets a couple of weeks.

Permanent lighting doesn't have that problem. A December install covers this Christmas and every Christmas after it, plus an everyday warm white setting the rest of the year on those 5:20 sunsets. The system is LED, and ENERGY STAR notes that LED lighting produces light up to 90 percent more efficiently than incandescent bulbs, per its LED lighting overview. A lighting researcher at UC Davis puts LED holiday lights at less than a quarter of the electricity of the old incandescent strings, in this piece on saving holiday energy. Running the roofline every night is a small line on the power bill, not a big one.

If you are weighing the cost, our posts on what permanent outdoor lighting costs in Knoxville and the five-year permanent vs seasonal comparison lay out the numbers.

That doesn't mean everyone who calls in December should go permanent. If you only want lights a few weeks a year, and a few weeks is all that is left, it is fair to book seasonal Christmas light installation early for next year instead. But if you were already leaning permanent, December is not too late to start.

If you are reading this in December

• Call now, not after the rush settles. Every day you wait comes out of the two-week shipping window. Call (865) 264-0180.
• Know what you want lit. Front elevation only, or the whole house? A clear answer at the consult speeds up the design.
• Ask for a mockup if you're unsure. It is faster to react to a picture than to describe what you want.
• Start any approvals today. HOA, historic overlay or a family decision, get it moving while the design is drawn up.
• Be flexible on the install day, and plan to be home at the end so the app is set up and your Christmas scene is ready the night we finish.

We install permanent lighting across the Knoxville metro from our Oak Ridge office, including North Knoxville, Powell homes north of the city, Farragut, Hardin Valley and Oak Ridge. Recent work is in our gallery, our residential lighting services cover the full range, and more answers are on our lighting FAQ page. If you want permanent lights on your house this Christmas, request a free quote and we will tell you honestly whether the calendar still works. If you are up toward Halls and the county line, our Powell service area page covers what those rooflines take.

Frequently Asked Questions

How late can I order permanent lights and still have them up for Christmas in Knoxville?

For most Knoxville homes, approving the design by about the first week of December leaves enough time. Custom track takes about two weeks to ship and the install is usually one day, but weather, a large roofline or a pending HOA or historic approval can add time.

How long does permanent lighting take from approval to install?

Permanent lighting usually takes about two weeks from approval to install, because the track is made for the home and color-matched to the trim. The install itself is typically finished in a single day.

Is it too late to get Christmas lights installed in December?

Seasonal Christmas light installation in December is limited to occasional openings, and a mid-December install leaves only a couple of weeks to enjoy the lights. Permanent lighting is often still possible in early December and stays up for every holiday after.

Can I see what my lights will look like before I commit?

Yes, you can ask for a mockup on a photo of your house before you approve anything. Mockups make it easier to compare colors and decide which rooflines, ridgelines and peaks to light, and they usually speed up a late decision.

What can delay a permanent lighting install before Christmas?

The most common delays are wet or icy weather, waiting on an HOA, board or historic approval, and a large or complex roofline that needs more track and more install time. Calling as early as possible gives the most room for any of these.

Request a free quote or call (865) 264-0180.