Everyone Loves Install Day. Nobody Loves January.
Putting lights up comes with cocoa and Bing Crosby. Taking them down comes with a ladder on refrozen snow, ten-degree wind, cords frozen stiff as rebar, and a January Saturday you'd rather spend literally anywhere else. It's why half the strands in any Spokane neighborhood are still hanging dark in March — and why takedown is the part of professional service people say they'd pay for twice.
With a full-service program through Christmas Lights Spokane, takedown and storage are already in the price. The crew that installed your display returns after the holidays, removes every strand, clip, and cord, inspects it all, and stores it labeled for next season. Your involvement is watching from the window with coffee.
What Happens at Takedown
- Scheduled removal. Takedowns run through January, weather permitting — crews work around ice storms and heavy snow weeks rather than through them, because rooflines under ice are exactly as dangerous coming down as going up.
- Clean removal. Every clip comes off the shingles and gutters with the strand — no cords cut "to save time," no clips left to work loose in spring winds, no marks on the fascia.
- Inspection and triage. Strands get checked as they come down. Dead bulbs are replaced, damaged sections flagged, and anything that won't survive another season is noted for replacement before next fall — so November never starts with a surprise.
- Coiled, labeled, stored. Each run is coiled and labeled by location ("front eave, west peak, maple tree") so next year's install is fast and exact. Most programs store your display off-site; if you prefer keeping it, it goes back to you packed properly.
Why Storage Isn't Overkill
Lights fail in the off-season more than during it. Loose coils in a garage bin spend nine months getting crushed under camping gear, chewed by mice, and heat-cycled through summer attic temperatures that make insulation brittle. Then the tangle: the industry's dirty secret is that "pre-tested and it worked in January" strands mostly die from how they're stored, not how they're used.
Professional storage fixes the failure mode. Strands are coiled to the wire's natural bend, boxed by property, kept in stable conditions, and inspected before the season starts. When install day comes in October or November, your display arrives ready — which is a big part of how crews get whole houses lit in an afternoon.
Have DIY Lights Up? Takedown-Only Is a Thing.
Plenty of Spokane homeowners hang their own lights in a burst of November enthusiasm and want no part of the January half. Takedown-only service — the crew removes, coils, and hands back your display — is available and priced per job based on footage and height. It's also, candidly, how a lot of people discover full-service: once someone else has done the January ladder, the following October's install quote reads differently.
When Should Lights Come Down in Spokane?
Custom is flexible here — plenty of Inland Northwest households run lights through January because, frankly, it's dark until 7:30 a.m. and the glow helps. That said, there are practical reasons not to leave seasonal strands up all year: UV exposure fades and embrittles insulation through summer, wind works clips loose over months, squirrels find exposed cords irresistible, and an abandoned strand stapled to fascia is the look every HOA letter cites. The common-sense window: enjoy them through the first week or two of January, then have them properly removed. If you want the year-round option done right, that's exactly what permanent trim-track lighting is for — hardware engineered to stay up, instead of strands enduring it.
Safety note for DIY takedown: January is the sketchiest ladder month of the Spokane year — refrozen melt at the ladder feet, ice at the roof edge, and cold-stiffened hands and cords. If you do it yourself, do it on a dry afternoon above freezing, with a spotter footing the ladder, and never pull a frozen strand loose from the ground. Or make one phone call and skip the whole paragraph.
What Takedown-Only Service Costs
Takedown-only jobs are priced on the same variables as installs — footage, height, and complexity — but run meaningfully cheaper because there's no product and no design time in the number. A single-story roofline takedown is often a one-visit, modest-ticket job; a two-story display with wrapped trees takes a crew a few hours. Two things move the price up: lights attached with staples or zip ties threaded through gutter guards (slow, careful removal), and frozen-in cords that have to wait for a thaw window. If you want the display boxed for reuse rather than just removed, say so — coiling and labeling adds a little time and saves you an hour of untangling per strand next fall.
The Post-Season Inspection, Item by Item
The inspection at takedown is what makes next season boring — in the best way. Here's what actually gets checked as a display comes down:
- Bulbs and sockets. Every dark bulb gets swapped; corroded or water-fogged sockets get flagged, because a bad socket kills its neighbors next year.
- Wire and insulation. Runs are checked for nicks, brittleness, and chew marks — caught now, a damaged section is a cheap winter repair instead of a November scramble.
- Plugs and connections. End plugs and inline connections take the worst of freeze-thaw; any that show heat discoloration or corrosion are replaced on principle.
- Clips and hardware. Counted and binned by roof zone, with broken clips replaced so install day next fall needs zero hardware runs.
- Timers and cords. Tested, coiled to their natural memory, and stored with the display they belong to.
Commercial displays get the same treatment on a compressed schedule — storefronts generally want lights down promptly in the first week or two of January, and property managers get a removal confirmation for the file. HOA common-area displays typically schedule takedown alongside the community's other January grounds work.
Takedown & Storage FAQs
Is takedown included in my install price?
In a full-service program, yes — install, maintenance, takedown, and usually storage are one quoted price. If you're comparing bids, confirm it explicitly; a cheap install with a separate January invoice isn't cheap. Details on how pricing breaks down are in our cost guide.
Exactly when in January will the crew come?
You'll get a scheduling window rather than a fixed date, because January weather calls the shots — a silver-thaw week can push the whole route. If you want lights down by a specific date (say, before a home listing photo shoot), tell the installer and they'll prioritize accordingly.
Where are my lights stored, and what does it cost?
Most full-service programs store displays in the installer's own facility as part of the package, labeled by home and location. If storage is a separate line item, it's typically modest. You can always opt to keep the boxed display at home instead.
What if some of my lights are broken at takedown?
That's what the inspection is for. Individual bulbs get swapped as a matter of course; damaged runs are documented so replacements are ordered before next season. With commercial-grade product, sections are repairable — another reason pros don't use sealed retail strands.
Do you take down lights another company installed?
Usually yes, priced as a takedown-only job. The one caveat: if a previous installer used staples or permanent fasteners, removal takes longer and the crew will tell you what they find as they go.
Can I leave my lights up year-round instead?
You can, but seasonal strands age fast in summer sun and most look rough by year two — and some HOAs prohibit visible off-season strands. If year-round is the goal, a permanent system is built for it and disappears into the trim by day.
Book the Whole Season — Including the End of It
One quote covers install, maintenance, takedown, and storage. Or ask about takedown-only for the lights you already hung.