Christmas light installation in Hamilton runs $6.50 to $12 CAD a foot with the lights supplied, on the rates Hamilton House Painters and DeVos Holiday Lights publish. Hamilton House Painters' minimum is $499.99 for up to 100 ft, and Shack Shine Hamilton starts at $1,100 with the lights bought. Add 13 percent HST.
I install permanent lighting in Ottawa and quote under the same Ontario tax. Hamilton is a metro of 785,184 people on the 2021 census, and two of its installers print a per-foot rate, which most Canadian lighting pages do not. Below is every public number, what sits inside it, and what a Hamilton rate card needs.
Every figure is CAD as published, checked on October 28, 2026, with USD at the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4038 on October 27, 2026. Hamilton House Painters says plus HST; the others do not say, so read them all as before tax.
What
Hamilton price (CAD)
USD at 1.4038
Includes
Source
Minimum, up to 100 ft, your lights
from $499.99
$356.17
Install and takedown labour, up to 30 ft from grade
$3.25 to $12 a foot, and the spread is all about who owns the lights and who stores them.
At the low end, Hamilton House Painters runs a program it has offered since the 2014 season. The first 100 ft costs $499.99 if you hang the customer's own strings and $824.99 if it supplies C9 LEDs. Past 100 ft, every extra foot is $3.25 labour only or $6.50 with lights. Anything off the program is $110 an hour. The page caps the work at 30 ft from grade, and says "some conditions apply" on the package.
At the top, DeVos Holiday Lights, with an office at 762 Upper James, charges $9 to $12 a foot "depending on difficulty". That price carries more: DeVos designs, installs, maintains, takes down and stores the lights, and supplies them. Storage and mid-season service are what turn $6.50 into $9 to $12.
That gap is the lesson for anyone pricing in Hamilton. A customer comparing $6.50 to $12 is comparing two different products. Show storage and service calls as lines, and the $12 stops looking like double. Our seasonal per-foot guide builds those lines from scratch.
From $1,100 at Shack Shine Hamilton for year one, with the customer buying the lights, plus design, install and takedown. From year two the customer pays install and takedown only, at about 45 to 55 percent of year one: $495 to $605 on the $1,100 start. Shack Shine reschedules at no charge if the weather is too rough on install day.
Shack Shine prints the same $1,100 start on its London and Kitchener-Waterloo pages, and our Toronto pricing page found it there too, so the seasonal floor in Ontario is set by the brand, not the city. The per-foot rates are where Hamilton is local. Our rebook and re-install page works through the year-two price.
No Hamilton installer I found prints a permanent price. Nardi Electric installs Gemstone track in Hamilton and gives one useful number: its average home has 117 linear feet of roofline, about 150 lights, and costs $4.34 a month to run six hours a day. That 117 ft is a good check on your own counts for a Hamilton front.
October 1 to the second week of December for installs, January 3 to 31 for takedown, on Hamilton House Painters' published calendar, weather permitting.
Oct 1Install window opens
Oct 28Average first fall frost
2nd week DecInstall window closes
Jan 3Takedown window opens
Jan 31Takedown window closes
The weather backs that up. Hamilton's average first fall frost is October 28 on ECCC's 1991 to 2020 normals. The 1981 to 2010 snowfall normals at the Royal Botanical Gardens put 7 cm in November, 26 cm in December and 32 cm in January, 118 cm a year. Snow sits on the ground about 2 days in an average November, 13 in December and 23 in January.
The temperature normals give November a high of 8 and a low of 0, December 2 and minus 5, January minus 1 and minus 9, with about two nights a year in the minus twenties. So November is the month to fill, December is a scramble, and takedown in January is cold but rarely dangerous. February brings 31 cm of snow on average, so a takedown that slips past January can slip a long way. Write the window and a weather clause into the agreement, not a date; our takedown pricing and scheduling guide has the wording.
What do the escarpment and the house heights do to the price?#
Hamilton has two cities in one: the lower city below the Niagara Escarpment and the mountain above it. Shack Shine names both in its service area, along with Dundas, Ancaster and Stoney Creek, and DeVos runs from Binbrook to Waterdown.
Height limits are real. Hamilton House Painters' program covers work up to 30 ft from grade. A tall house in the lower city, or a back elevation that drops toward a ravine, can sit past that. Price height as a storey premium on the runs that need it, or quote it hourly.
Difficulty is a published price driver. DeVos's $9 to $12 swings on difficulty. Give peaks and steep pitch their own premium so a gabled front is not priced like a bungalow.
The drive. Grimsby to Waterdown is a real run around the lake. Set a minimum job that covers the truck roll, and add a travel line past your radius.
A worked example: a 170 ft two-storey at Hamilton rates#
The two-storey from our pricing guides, front elevation only, measured from the homeowner's photo with the 16 ft garage door as the reference: 122 ft of roofline and four 12 ft peak runs, 170 lit feet, plus three jumps. Priced on Hamilton House Painters' published program with its C9 LEDs, on my reading of the page: the 100 ft package, then $6.50 a foot for the rest.
Cost stackUSD at 1.4038
Total3 lines
$1,030.34
1100 ft package with C9 LEDs, install and takedown$587.6857%
Same drawing on GlowBid's default C9 card, before HST
$1,684.20
$1,199.74
$1,279.99 before tax is $7.53 a lit foot. The DeVos range runs $250 to $760 above it for the same house, and that difference buys design, maintenance and storage. GlowBid's default rate card, with $8 a foot on roofline, $9 on peaks, $4 on jumps, a 15 percent peak premium, 10 percent on second-storey runs and a $45 timer, lands at $1,684.20, between DeVos's low and midpoint, because it prices the four peaks and the upper storey instead of averaging them.
The jumps are a good test of any quote. A flat per-foot rate on lit feet gives the three jumps away; the default card charges $64 for them. Draw your own house in the free roofline tool and the footage is there in two minutes. It is an estimate confirmed on site, and the quote says so.
Two lines for lights. A labour-only rate for customer-owned strings and a lights-included rate. Hamilton already prices both, so customers will ask.
Storage and service as lines. That is the gap between $6.50 and $12. Show it.
A height rule. Decide where your ladder stops, then price above it as a premium or an hourly line.
Minimum job. Hamilton's published floor is $499.99. GlowBid's default is $1,500, above every Hamilton starting price; lower it before you quote a bungalow.
GlowBid bills in US dollars at launch; the rate card holds whatever CAD numbers you type. A 7-day trial with no card and a 30-day money-back on a first yearly payment are on the pricing page. The province-by-province tax table is on our Canada pricing page.
Quoting $6.50 against $12 without saying what is in each. Storage and mid-season service are worth money. List them, or you lose to a rate that does not include them.
Counting only lit feet. Jumps take wire, clips and time. Price them as their own run.
Promising a December install at November rates. December averages 26 cm of snow and 13 days with snow on the ground. Book November first and charge rush after.
A January takedown date with no weather clause. February adds another 31 cm. Window plus weather.
Missing the height. A house past 30 ft at the eave is not a program job. Ask before you quote.
HST on the balance but not the deposit. Thirteen percent on both.
Trusting a photo on a run that angles away from the camera. It reads short; type the tape length on the site visit.
FAQ
Questions installers ask
How much does Christmas light installation cost in Hamilton?
Hamilton House Painters starts at $499.99 CAD for up to 100 ft on your own lights and $824.99 for 100 ft with C9 LEDs supplied, plus HST. DeVos Holiday Lights charges $9 to $12 a foot with lights, takedown and storage in, and Shack Shine Hamilton starts at $1,100 with the lights bought. A 170 ft two-storey front lands near $1,280 to $2,040 before tax across those published rates.
What do Hamilton installers charge per foot for Christmas lights?
Two Hamilton companies publish a per-foot number. Hamilton House Painters charges $3.25 a foot past its first 100 ft when you supply the lights and $6.50 when it supplies C9 LEDs. DeVos Holiday Lights, with an office on Upper James, charges $9 to $12 a foot depending on difficulty, with design, maintenance, takedown and storage included. Add 13 percent HST to both.
Is HST charged on Christmas light installation in Hamilton?
Yes, 13 percent HST on the whole job, lights and labour, as everywhere in Ontario per the Canada Revenue Agency. Hamilton House Painters prints plus HST beside every price; the other Hamilton pages do not say, so read them as before tax. On a 170 ft job at $1,279.99 that is $166.40 of HST. Put the tax on the deposit as well as the balance.
When do Hamilton installers hang and take down Christmas lights?
Hamilton House Painters installs from October 1 to the second week of December and takes down from January 3 to 31, weather permitting. Hamilton's average first fall frost is October 28 on ECCC's 1991 to 2020 normals, and the 1981 to 2010 snowfall normals put 7 cm in November against 26 cm in December, so October and November are the install months.
What do returning customers pay in Hamilton?
Less, when they already own the lights. Shack Shine Hamilton puts year two at about 45 to 55 percent of year one, install and takedown only, which works out to $495 to $605 on its $1,100 starting price. Hamilton House Painters' labour-only rate, $3.25 a foot past the first 100 ft, is the same idea priced by the foot. Write the year-two price on the first quote.
Can I quote a Hamilton house from a photo?
Yes, as an estimate confirmed on site. Set the scale from the garage door or a tape measurement, draw the roofline, peaks and jumps, and the footage and price come from the same drawing. Photo measurements are estimates; runs angled away from the camera read short and get a warning, and every GlowBid measurement carries a source and confidence label. Check the height against your ladder limit on the visit.