Commercial Holiday Decor Timeline: When to Plan, Approve, Install and Remove

When should a business start planning holiday lighting?

Late summer is a sensible start, and earlier is fine. Last Best Holiday Lights in Missoula says it typically starts installing in October, finishes by mid-December and recommends reaching out in late summer or early fall, because its schedule fills up. A St. Louis dealer's comparison goes further and recommends booking seasonal work in summer. Your situation may allow less lead time, but those are the signals from the people doing the work.

For a commercial property, add time for approvals. If you only begin in November, assume you will have fewer choices of crew and date. It may still be workable, as we cover below. This timeline is part of our Montana Winter Property Guide.

What should happen in August and September?

Decide three things: what the display is for, who decides, and what you can spend on it. A retailer may care most about the sidewalk view on a shopping evening. An office may just want a tidy entrance. An HOA is lighting something residents pass twice a day, and it may need a board vote to spend anything at all.

Then find out who has authority over the building. A tenant generally needs the owner or property manager to approve anything attached to the exterior, and a shared building may have rules about signs, awnings and other tenants' frontage. Get the name of the person who can say yes, and find out how far in advance they need a request. If your HOA's rules are the question, our guide to holiday lights and HOA rules explains where to look.

This is also when to sort out last year's display, if you own one. The Downtown Missoula Partnership, which owns more than 150 holiday decorations, describes preparing each fall by inspecting, cleaning and testing every piece and replacing burned-out or broken bulbs. That is a good model at any scale: find out what still works while there is time to replace it.

What should happen in September and October?

Walk the site with your installer. Our commercial holiday lighting walkthroughs, which follow the same care as home installations, cover what gets lit, where the outdoor power is and whether the circuit can carry the display, and what has to stay clear. Look at it from the street and the parking lot, since that is where most people will see it. Mark anything a clip or cord should avoid.

Get the plan in writing and send it for approval once: layout, attachment method, power, install and takedown dates, and who to call if something fails. Clips made for the purpose, not nails, screws or staples, are what you want to see specified, because holes in fascia, flashing or siding let water in. Ask for proof of insurance at the same time. Questions for this stage are in our guide to hiring a Christmas light installer, and budget drivers are in installation cost factors.

Check the rules on lighting too. In the city of Missoula, the outdoor lighting ordinance exempts seasonal displays with multiple low-wattage bulbs of approximately 15 lumens or less on commercial, industrial and multi-family properties, as long as they are safe and not a nuisance. It prohibits blinking, flashing, moving and color-changing fixtures not otherwise permitted by the sign ordinance. So if the plan includes animated or color-changing effects, ask the city's planning office first. Outside the city, ask your local government.

When should commercial holiday lights actually go up?

Early to mid November is our target, before the ground freezes hard, snow sits on the roof and ice forms along the gutters. Lights can go up early and stay off until you are ready, which also takes the pressure off a storm week. Our guide on when to hang Christmas lights in Montana explains why the weather matters more than the date.

Schedule around your customers and residents. Ladders at a front door are a problem during business hours, so ask for early morning or a closed day. Clear it with delivery schedules, and if a lift is needed, reserve the space it will stand in. Try to plan around your sidewalk and parking snow plan, too: cords and connections should stay up out of snow, off walking surfaces and clear of plow paths, where they could be a trip hazard or get cut.

When should lights be on?

Choose a switch-on date tied to something real for your business. For downtown Missoula, that date is often Holidays on Higgins, which the Downtown Missoula Partnership holds on the first Saturday of December. In 2026 that is Saturday, December 5, with the tree lighting at 6:00 p.m. Some retailers will want to be lit earlier for Thanksgiving week. Decide in October and build your install date backward from it.

Use a timer or smart controller rather than relying on whoever closes up. Set the hours to your trading hours and foot traffic, then check them again after the time change and when the display first runs for a full evening.

Who looks after the display in December?

Decide this before the first bulb goes out, because something will fail. Some Missoula companies include it: Last Best says maintenance comes at no extra cost, Mrs. Claus advertises 48-hour free maintenance and Montana Holiday Lighting lists maintenance down to a single bulb. Check whether your own installer does, how fast and at what hours. A display on a storefront that goes dark on a Friday evening is a much bigger problem than the same thing on a house.

Give your staff a one-page note: where the timer is, who to call, and a rule that nobody climbs a ladder to fix lights in snow. OSHA's portable ladder guidance calls for three points of contact and a stable and level surface, which is hard to come by on an icy sidewalk, and its winter weather guidance asks employers to clear walking surfaces promptly and plan snow-related tasks in advance. If your snow contractor and lighting contractor are different companies, introduce them. Our property manager winter checklist and guide to snow removal for retail and storefronts cover the rest of the site.

When should commercial holiday lights come down?

Set the date in the plan. One downtown marker is mid-January: the Partnership says the Higgins Avenue holiday tree stays lit until then. Beyond that, the National Electrical Code limit is worth noting. EC&M, an electrical trade publication, explains that temporary wiring for holiday lights must be removed within 90 days of installation, under section 590.3(B). A display installed November 1 reaches 90 days at the end of January. Ask your installer or electrician how this applies to your setup, particularly if the display does not have permanent wiring and receptacles behind it.

A roof can still be icy in January, so allow some flexibility, and make sure the plan says who decides when conditions are safe. Lights on trees should not wait until spring: strands left on can cut into bark and limbs, and our guide to lights on trees explains how to avoid it. The takedown and storage guide covers the removal itself.

What if it is already November and nothing is planned?

You can still do something useful, but narrow the scope. Choose one clean roofline or the main entrance and leave the rest for next year. Use simple attachments, and skip anything needing a landlord's review if you can get a quick answer from the right person. Ask whether the work can happen on the next dry, calm morning rather than waiting on a perfect slot. Expect that crews may be booked, so call several companies. Our list of the best Christmas light installers in Missoula is a good start.

And write down what you learned while it is fresh. A short note on what worked, who approved it and how long it took is next year's August planning meeting.

Can one contractor handle lights and snow?

It helps, because whoever hangs the lights knows where the snow gets pushed and piled, and the layout can stay clear of it. We clear commercial lots and sidewalks through the winter under our snow and storm services, and HOA roads under HOA snow removal. Our holiday lighting is new for 2026, and packages and pricing are still being finalized, so for now it is an interest list with no obligation. Commercial and community properties hear early because their approvals take longer.

To start, call (406) 215-7319 or tell us about your property. A rough idea of what you would like lit is enough for a first conversation.

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