Seasonal Christmas light installation in Denver runs $5 to $12 per linear foot with lights, clips, labour and takedown included, or $525 to $1,135 as a package, across the 5 Denver-area company pages I checked on September 7, 2026. Labour only on a customer's own lights is $1.50 to $3 a foot. Permanent runs $18 to $21 a foot for track and install plus the lights. I install permanent lighting in Ottawa; these are Denver's public numbers, dated and linked.
Denver price points, public and dated#
All USD as published. None of the pages say whether tax is included, so treat them as before tax.
| What |
Denver price |
Includes |
Source |
| Seasonal, per foot, lights included |
$5 to $12 |
Lights, clips, labour, takedown |
Christmas Colorado |
| Labour only, customer's lights, per foot |
$1.50 to $3; $75 to $150 per hour |
Hanging only |
A Good Front |
| Labour only, customer's lights, minimum |
$415 |
Customer supplies lights, cords, clips |
Denver Illuminations |
| Basic package, 1,000 to 2,500 sq ft |
$580 ($525 before August 31) |
Up to 150 ft C7, labour, takedown, 1 timer, 1 cord, warranty |
Denver Illuminations |
| Gold package, 2,500 to 4,500 sq ft |
$880 ($835 early) |
Up to 200 ft C7, 200 ft minis, 2 timers, 2 cords |
Denver Illuminations |
| Basic-LED and Gold-LED |
$825 ($725 early); $1,135 ($1,075 early) |
Same, in LED |
Denver Illuminations |
| Small home; medium; large two-storey |
$350 to $650; $650 to $1,200; $1,200 to $2,500 and up |
Full service |
Christmas Colorado |
| Small home; larger home |
$300 to $600; $700 to $1,500 and up |
Install, season maintenance, takedown |
Brilliant Christmas Lights |
| Permanent, install and track, per foot |
$18 to $21; $850 minimum; lights about $600 extra |
Aluminum channel, hardware, concealed wiring, app setup |
5280 Lights |
| Permanent LED system |
$2,000 to $10,000 and up |
|
Christmas Colorado |
$5 to $12 a foot with lights, and of the six US cities in this series only Minneapolis publishes a lower per-foot band. Christmas Colorado, serving Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Centennial, Arvada, Littleton and Highlands Ranch, lists $5 to $12 per linear foot including lights, clips, labour and takedown, flat packages of $300 to $1,500 and up, and hourly work at $50 to $150. The same page says returning customers pay 20 to 40 percent less and that late-November and December bookings run 10 to 25 percent higher.
Labour only is cheaper still. A Good Front, a window-cleaning company covering Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs, publishes $1.50 to $3 a foot or $75 to $150 an hour by crew size. Denver Illuminations sets a $415 minimum to hang lights the customer supplies. For the method that turns any of these into a rate card, start with the seasonal pricing guide.
What does a package cost in Denver?#
$525 to $1,135, and Denver Illuminations is the only Denver company I found with package prices on the page. Basic, for a 1,000 to 2,500 sq ft home, is $580 with up to 150 ft of C7, labour, takedown, one timer, one extension cord, weatherproofing and a warranty. Gold, for 2,500 to 4,500 sq ft, is $880 with up to 200 ft of C7 and 200 ft of mini lights, two timers and two cords. The LED versions are $825 and $1,135. New customers who book before August 31 pay $525, $835, $725 and $1,075.
Work the Basic back on its full 150 ft and it is $3.87 a foot with C7 lights included; Gold-LED is $5.68 a foot on its 200 ft of C7, with the 200 ft of minis on top. Those are package rates on square-footage bands, not measured footage, so a 170 ft roofline pays the same as a 130 ft one. Brilliant Christmas Lights brackets the market at $300 to $600 small and $700 to $1,500 and up larger, and Christmas Colorado at $350 to $650 small, $650 to $1,200 medium and $1,200 to $2,500 and up for a large two-storey.
What do permanent lights cost in Denver?#
$18 to $21 a foot for installation and track, plus the lights, from 5280 Lights, a Govee installer with an $850 minimum. The rate covers colour-matched aluminum channel, stainless hardware, concealed wiring, controller placement, app setup and 30 days of support; the customer buys the Govee lights directly for about $600 on a 180 ft house, so the worked totals are $3,240 to $3,780 for install and $3,840 to $4,380 all in. Two-storey homes sit at the $21 end. Christmas Colorado gives $2,000 to $10,000 and up for permanent LED systems, and Denver Illuminations quotes permanent per job.
That is a different product from the $25 to $35 a foot dealer systems in Dallas and Chicago: consumer lights, installer track. The permanent cost page sets out the difference, and the permanent per-foot guide shows how to price track and lights as separate lines so a Govee job and a dealer job both come off one card.
Is Christmas light installation taxable in Colorado?#
Ask your accountant, and here is what I could and could not verify. The City and County of Denver says its 5.15 percent sales tax applies to retail sales, leases and rentals of tangible property, certain services and digital products, that the combined rate is 9.15 percent, and that Denver is a home-rule city that collects and administers its own taxes. Avalara's Denver page shows the split of that 9.15: 2.9 state, 5.15 city, 1 RTD, 0.1 cultural facilities district. The Colorado Department of Revenue's pages returned an error every time I tried to load them on September 7, 2026, so I will not quote the state's service rules from memory.
Two things are still true. If you lease lights to the customer, "leases and rentals of tangible property" is on Denver's taxable list. And Aurora, Lakewood and Littleton are their own home-rule cities with their own rates. Quote before tax, show tax as a labelled line, and set the percent per card once your accountant answers.
When is the Denver season?#
October through Thanksgiving for installs and January for takedown, with October as the race. Boulder's average first snow is October 17 on NOAA's 1948-to-present record, the earliest September 12, 1974. Denver's snowfall record runs 3.9 inches in October, 7.3 in November, 6.6 in December and 6.4 in January, 49.0 inches a season on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Central Park. The temperature normals are October 67 and 36, November 55 and 26, December 46 and 18, and the NWS puts December's mean at 31.2.
The market prices the calendar: Denver Illuminations discounts bookings before August 31, and Christmas Colorado adds 10 to 25 percent in late November and December. Neither publishes a takedown window; write yours with a weather clause, because a January with 6.4 inches of snow and an 18-degree low is not a fixed-date month.
What do early snow, sun and freeze-thaw do to the price?#
They set the premiums and the schedule. Four Front Range realities for the rate card:
- October snow on a warm roof. First snow in mid-October against a 67-degree normal October high, so the same shingles can be iced one morning and soft the next afternoon. Price a return visit into the season for seasonal work, and fasten permanent track for the freeze-thaw that A Good Front names as its local reason for durable fixtures.
- Steep gables and snow load. Denver stock has real pitch and real snow. Peaks carry their own per-foot rate plus a pitch premium (15 percent on the GlowBid default), and a percent per storey on the upper runs.
- The late premium is already local. Christmas Colorado publishes 10 to 25 percent for late November and December. GlowBid's default rush is 20 percent after your cut-off, which lands in the middle of that.
- Takedown in January. 6.4 inches, 18-degree lows. Our takedown pricing page covers the window and the return-trip price.
- Material waste. Cold cuts and brittle clips. A 10 percent materials buffer, shown as the installer's choice.
A worked example: a Highlands Ranch two-storey on GlowBid's default C9 card#
A two-storey with a steep front gable over the entry, a second gable over the garage, a walkway and a blue spruce in the front yard. Measured from the homeowner's photo with the 16 ft garage door as the reference: 36 ft of roofline on the garage, 80 ft on the upper storey, four peak runs of 14 ft, two jumps totalling 12 ft, 30 ft of walkway and a 50 ft tree wrap. Every rate is the GlowBid default on the Seasonal C9 line; installers set their own.
| Line |
Footage |
Rate |
Base |
Premiums |
Line total |
| Roofline, garage (storey 1) |
36 ft |
$8.00 |
$288.00 |
none |
$288.00 |
| Roofline, upper (storey 2) |
80 ft |
$8.00 |
$640.00 |
storey 10%: $64.00 |
$704.00 |
| Peaks, 4 runs of 14 ft (storey 2) |
56 ft |
$9.00 |
$504.00 |
pitch 15%: $75.60; storey 10%: $50.40 |
$630.00 |
| Jumps, 2 runs (unlit) |
12 ft |
$4.00 |
$48.00 |
flat per jump: $0 |
$48.00 |
| Ground, walkway |
30 ft |
$5.00 |
$150.00 |
none |
$150.00 |
| Tree wrap, blue spruce |
50 ft |
$6.00 |
$300.00 |
none |
$300.00 |
| Run subtotal |
|
|
|
|
$2,120.00 |
| Timer (add-on) |
1 |
$45.00 |
|
|
$45.00 |
| Minimum job check ($1,500) |
|
|
|
met, no adjustment |
$0.00 |
| Total before tax |
|
|
|
|
$2,165.00 |
| Deposit at signing (30%) |
|
|
|
|
$649.50 |
Lit footage is 252 ft; with the 10 percent buffer the materials list says 277.2 ft of cord. The house-only part (roofline, peaks, jumps: $1,670) is $9.71 per foot of roofline and peak, inside Christmas Colorado's $5 to $12 but near the top, and nearly double Denver Illuminations' Gold-LED package math of $5.68. That is the honest read on Denver: the default card is a northern two-storey card, and the published Denver market sells 150 to 200 ft packages under $1,135. The whole ticket, $2,165, sits inside Christmas Colorado's $1,200 to $2,500 and up for a large two-storey. Set your own numbers; the free roofline tool gives you the footage in two minutes, as an estimate confirmed on site, and the quote says so.
Setting a Denver rate card#
Five settings that make a card Front Range-ready:
- Roofline rate to your market, not ours. If your competition is $3.87 a foot on a 150 ft package, $8 will not sell on a bungalow. Set the rate; the drawing does the footage.
- Peaks and storeys as visible premiums. Denver houses have both. A peak rate plus pitch percent and a storey percent show the customer why the gable house costs more than the ranch.
- Rush after your cut-off. The market already publishes 10 to 25 percent. Put yours on the card so the late quotes carry it automatically.
- Early-booking discount as a discount line. Denver Illuminations sells August. GlowBid's rate card carries discounts; set one with an end date.
- Tax per card, labelled. 9.15 in Denver, different in Aurora and Lakewood, and the accountant's answer on services and leases.
GlowBid bills in US dollars; the rate card holds whatever numbers you type. Founding pricing is on the pricing page.
Mistakes to avoid pricing in Denver#
- Quoting the package price on a measured house. $580 for "150 ft of C7" on a 1,000 to 2,500 sq ft band pays the same for a 130 ft roofline and a 190 ft one. Measure, and price the footage.
- Pricing labour-only work at the full-service rate, or the reverse. $1.50 to $3 a foot to hang the customer's strings; $5 to $12 with lights. Say which one the quote is.
- Leaving the late premium off the card. The market charges it; if you do not, December is your worst-margin month.
- A fixed takedown date. January averages 6.4 inches and an 18-degree low. Window plus weather clause.
- Fastening permanent track for a mild climate. A Good Front names freeze-thaw cycles as the reason its crews choose durable fixtures; price the fastening the roof needs.
- Guessing on tax across suburbs. Denver, Aurora, Lakewood and Littleton each set their own rate. One tax field per card, set to the city the truck is in.