Holiday lights? Get off that ladder and hire a professional

You can learn everything you need to know about a person by the way they handle a string of holiday lights. When confronted with tangled cords, burned-out bulbs and hanging hassles, do they joyfully whistle “Deck the Halls,” or does they get red-faced and start swearing. Throw a ladder, icy conditions and electricity into the mix, and you are asking for a trip to the emergency room.

“Holiday lights are all about creating festive cheer, but untangling wires and climbing ladders can quickly go from fa-la-la-la-la to bah-humbug and in some cases, risk,” said Angie Hicks, owner of Angi (formerly Angie’s List), a national home services platform.

Her online service has been bustling since Thanksgiving as more homeowners than ever seek out professional holiday light installers in their area. “This is a smart move given that some of the most common and serious injuries around the home involve ladders,” said Hicks. “People climb up and stretch too far, stand on the top step or don’t have a spotter, and next thing — boom!”

According to a recent survey by Angi, 81% of the people who put up holiday lights last year ran into snags such as tangled lights, burned-out bulbs and blown electrical circuits.

Hicks recalls one Christmas at her house when the holiday lights overloaded the circuits, and her family spent Christmas Eve in the dark waiting for an electrician.

“Most people don’t understand how much electricity their lights are pulling,” she said.

That frustration is largely why this year, 42% of those putting up outdoor lights are considering hiring professional help. Depending on the complexity and scope of work, homeowners can expect to pay from $200 to $1,000 for most projects, Hicks said. That includes putting lights up, maintaining them, taking them down and sometimes storing them. Timely takedown is key: 31% of decorating homeowners surveyed admitted they’ve left lights up longer than intended. In other words, they are that neighbor.

In the years I’ve had holiday lights on the roof of my two-story home, I hired professionals. I’ve generally liked my husband enough to not want him scaling a 30-foot ladder. A few years ago, however, we stopped making a big light production of our house, not only to save the $1,000 expense, but also because the lights were constantly blowing, and the workers were sketchy. (That’s what we get for hiring a guy who zipped up through the neighborhood one day on a Vespa.)

When I shared this story with Hicks, she assured me that before allowing a business to join Angi’s Certified network, her team performs a criminal background check on company owners and has them attest to having proper licenses.

“Homeowners, however, still need to do their own due diligence and ask for proof of insurance,” she said.

In a nutcracker, today’s holiday message is this. Before you get up on the rooftop or find someone you love dangling from a rain gutter, consider putting some of your holiday budget toward hiring a professional light installer. Some jobs are just not worth killing yourself over. Hanging Christmas lights is one. Here, said Hicks, are the reasons to consider hiring a pro:

Avoid risk: “The main reason more homeowners are choosing to hire a pro to put up and take down lights is safety,” Hicks said. Seriously, folks, how are you ever going to make it down the chimney with both your arms in casts?

Stay current: Decorative holiday lighting is getting more sophisticated and requiring more expertise. As the displays get more elaborate (thanks in part to peer pressure), installation gets more complicated and, again, requires more expertise. According to the Angi survey, 21% of homeowners who put up lights last year said friendly competition with neighbors was a factor.