Holiday Light Takedown and Storage: How to Do It Right in Montana

When should holiday lights come down in Montana?

On the first safe day after you are done with them, which may not be the first day you would like. A display can simply be switched off if the roof is icy. Our guide on when to hang Christmas lights covers what to do if a safe takedown day does not come in January, and it is the reason we put timing there rather than repeating it here. This article is part of our Montana Winter Property Guide.

Two outside limits are worth knowing. If you live under an HOA, your covenants or rules may set a removal date, though some managers allow a grace period when weather makes removal unsafe, as Associa, a community association manager, notes. Our guide to holiday lights and HOA rules covers how to ask. And EC&M, an electrical trade publication, notes that under the National Electrical Code temporary wiring for holiday lights must be removed within 90 days of installation. If you installed early and the season drags on, that is one more reason not to leave strands up until spring.

How do you take lights down safely from a ladder?

Treat it as a fresh ladder job, not the easy half. OSHA's portable ladder guidance says to keep three points of contact while climbing (two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand), face the ladder, keep your body near the middle of the step, and use a ladder only on a stable and level surface unless it is secured. Rungs and feet must be free of slippery material, and an extension ladder used to reach an elevated surface should extend at least 3 feet above the point of support.

In January here, those rules are harder to follow. Snow on the rungs is slippery material. Ground that looks flat may be a crust over ice, and a thaw can soften it under one ladder foot. Clear down to a solid surface before setting up, knock snow off your boots, and have someone hold the base. Choose the warmest, calmest part of the day, and plan around the sun, since a roof edge in shade can stay icy long after the driveway has cleared. If the eave has ice along it, the job can wait. For more on setup, see outdoor Christmas light safety in cold and snow.

If any part of it requires walking on a roof with snow or ice, do not. Leave those strands off and up until conditions change, or hire it out.

How do you remove clips and strands without damaging the house?

Unplug first, then work back along the run from the far end. Cold plastic is brittle, and that goes for clips, sockets and insulation, so slide each clip free instead of pulling the strand and letting the clips break off. Yanking a strand from the ground is the fastest way to crack a gutter clip or pull a shingle tab that has frozen to it. If a clip is frozen in place, leave it rather than force it, and collect it after a thaw.

Walk the eaves and the ground afterward for leftover clips. Plastic pieces left in gutters end up in downspouts, and clips in the lawn end up in a mower in May. One local installer, Montana Holiday Lighting, even lists clip cleanup after snowmelt as part of its takedown work, which tells you how often they stay behind.

How do you take lights off trees?

Slowly, and in the opposite order they went on. Unwind rather than pull, since bark and small twigs are fragile in the cold and a frozen strand can snag and tear. Check each wrap for any spot where it has tightened against a branch. Lights left on through a growing season can girdle limbs, so tree lights are the ones that should not wait until summer, even if the roofline has to. Our guide to Christmas lights on trees without damage explains why. If you have a broken limb from the winter's snow load, that is a separate job for an arborist and worth having looked at before spring.

What should you check on each strand as it comes down?

Inspect while you are coiling, because that is the only time you will have the whole strand in your hands. Texas Co-op Power's guidance is to inspect each strand as you remove it, replace burned-out bulbs and discard any strand with frayed or damaged cords. We would add a quick plug-in test on a bench or garage floor once the strands are dry, since a strand that fails in January is much easier to deal with than one that fails on a ladder next fall.

Look for cracked sockets, split or stiff insulation, bare copper, pinched spots where a clip or plow has been, and chewed wire. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's holiday page also warns against overloading outlets and says never to string together more than three sets of incandescent lights, so note how many old-style strands you have been linking while you are at it. If you are still running incandescent strands, this is a natural time to think about switching to LED.

When should you throw a strand away?

Throw it out when the cord is frayed or damaged, the socket is cracked, or you find exposed wire. A cheap strand is not worth repairing with electrical tape, and it certainly is not worth a fire. Cut the plug off before it goes in the trash so nobody pulls it out and uses it.

We looked for a current, confirmed recycling option for string lights in the Missoula area and could not verify one, so call ahead before driving anywhere with a box of old strands. Do not leave lights on a Christmas tree you are dropping off, either: Missoula's tree collection asks that all stands and decorations be removed first.

How should holiday lights be stored?

Dry, coiled loosely and sealed against pests. Texas Co-op Power suggests a storage reel or bag made for string lights to prevent tangles, broken bulbs and damage, or, failing that, wrapping lights around a piece of cardboard with a slit cut in one end to hold the end of the strand. Whatever you use, let strands dry fully first, because a strand boxed wet off a snowy roof will sit damp for ten months.

Pick a plastic bin with a tight lid over a cardboard box, which also keeps mice away from the wires if your garage or shed has them. Remove batteries from any battery-powered decorations before storing them, since they may corrode and leak.

How do you label lights so next year's install is faster?

Label each strand with where it hung: front eave, garage peak, left porch post. Texas Co-op Power makes the same suggestion, and it is what turns next year's job from a puzzle into a matter of following the labels. Keep a phone photo of the finished display in the bin, along with a note of how many strands each run took, spare bulbs and fuses, and how the cords were routed to the outlet.

Pack extension cords and timers separately or at the top of the bin, and bring them in with the lights. Cords are designed for temporary use and are not safe to leave outside and plugged in. While they are out, it is also a good time to check whether your outdoor outlet cover survived the winter.

Should an installer store your lights for you?

Some do. Around Missoula, Last Best Holiday Lights says it stores its lights in a secure facility, Mrs. Claus Holiday Lighting advertises free storage year round, and Montana Holiday Lighting and Montana Fresh Panes also mention storage. Our list of the best Christmas light installers in Missoula has more detail. Ownership matters here. Some companies lease their lights and will not hang customer-owned strands, so storage comes with the arrangement. If you own your lights, ask whose responsibility they are in storage, and whether they are tested before they come back out. Our list of questions to ask a Christmas light installer covers this.

We take a simpler position for now. Takedown is part of the Christmas light service we are building for 2026, and storage is something we are looking at but have not committed to. If you would use it, tell us when you join the interest list.

Can takedown be booked ahead of time?

It should be, and it should be agreed in the same conversation as installation. Ask for a target date range, what happens if the roof is icy on the day, and how the crew will fit you in afterward. The same goes for businesses: commercial holiday lighting usually has to come down on a schedule that suits the tenants, and our commercial holiday decor timeline builds that in.

If you would rather not be on a ladder in January at all, call (406) 215-7319 or get on the holiday lighting interest list. And once the lights are down, the same weeks are a good time to look at what the winter did to the rest of the property, which our guide to yard cleanup after the snow melts walks through.

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