Christmas Light Installation Estimate Template (Free, 2026)

A Christmas light installation estimate needs fourteen things on it, and most of the templates you can buy or download today have about half of them. The template below has all fourteen: header, customer and property, a scope block, the runs by type with footage and rate, jumps, peaks, add-ons, subtotal, tax, deposit, an expiry date, a measurement disclaimer, terms and a signature line. Copy it into Word, Pages or a Google Doc and use it tonight. Further down is the ten-minute method for filling it in from one photo, the four mistakes that lose jobs, and how GlowBid prints the same document straight from the drawing.

What the templates out there include

We looked at what "christmas light installation estimate template" returns in September 2026. Here is what each one actually gives you, from their own pages.

None of them price a jump differently from a roofline, and none of them put the product, colour and spacing on the page as a scope block. Those two gaps are where the disputes come from.

The template

Copy everything between the rules. Square brackets are the fields you fill.

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[Company name] [Address] | [Phone] | [Email] | [Website]

ESTIMATE [number] | Date: [date] | Valid until: [date, 30 days out]

Prepared for [Customer name] [Property address] [Phone] | [Email]

Scope

Lighting

Premiums

Add-ons

Totals

Measurement disclaimer Measurements are derived from photos and are estimates. On-site verification is recommended for full accuracy. Footage confirmed on site may change the total at the per-foot rates above.

Terms

1. This estimate is valid until the date shown. Prices after that date are subject to change.
2. The deposit reserves your install date and covers product ordered for your home. [Refundable / non-refundable] if we cannot install before [date].
3. Install dates depend on weather. We will reschedule within [3] business days of a weather delay.
4. Takedown is between [January 2] and [January 31] unless agreed otherwise.
5. We are not responsible for pre-existing damage to eaves, shingles, gutters or fascia. We photograph the roofline before and after.
6. [Ownership: lights remain the property of the installer / lights are owned by the homeowner after final payment.]

Acceptance Signature: ______________________ Name: ______________________ Date: ____________

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That is the whole document. It fits on one Letter page with a mockup photo, two without.

Fill it in from a photo in ten minutes

This is the same method as our roofline measuring guide, with the estimate fields attached.

Minute 1: the photo. One shot of the front of the house, square-on from across the street, in daylight, with the whole roofline in frame. Ask the homeowner to text it, or pull it from your site-visit folder. Not Street View, not satellite.

Minute 2: the scale. Find the garage door. A single is 8 ft, a double is 16 ft. That is your reference length, and it sets the scale for everything on the front face of the house.

Minutes 3 to 5: trace the runs. Eaves first, corner to corner, including the returns. Then each gable's two sloped edges as peaks. Then the ridge line if they want it lit. Write each footage in the Lighting table as you go. A bungalow front is usually 40 to 60 ft of roofline; a two-storey with a garage bump-out is often 90 to 130 ft.

Minute 6: jumps and peaks. Count the unlit cord between lit runs. A typical two-gable front has four peak runs and two or three jumps. Put the jump footage on its own line at its own rate, and tick the steep-pitch premium if the gables are over about 8/12.

Minute 7: type in the runs that angle away. A side eave or a return reads short in a photo, sometimes by a third. Type those from a tape, a laser or a previous visit, and mark them.

Minutes 8 and 9: rates and add-ons. Multiply each run by your per-foot rate. Add the controller, timer, wreaths and takedown. Check the subtotal against your minimum job. Add tax.

Minute 10: scope and expiry. Fill the scope block from what you just quoted (product, colour, spacing, includes) and date the expiry 30 days out. Sign your side and send.

A worked example

The same two-storey we used in the measuring guide: 112 ft of roofline, two peaks totalling 36 ft, two jumps totalling 14 ft, permanent track with the controller included in the product line.

The scope block says "Permanent track, warm white, 12 in spacing, includes controller, app setup and a season warranty; quote valid until October 21, 2026." The homeowner can see exactly which eave costs what, and if the crew finds 118 ft on site instead of 112, the terms already say how the six feet are priced.

The mistakes that lose jobs

No scope block. An estimate that says "Christmas lights, $3,976" loses to the competitor who wrote "C9 warm white, 9 in spacing, roofline and two gables, timer included, takedown by January 15." The homeowner is comparing two numbers with no idea what is behind them, so the cheaper one wins. The scope block is also the thing that ends the "I thought the peaks were included" call in December.

No expiry. A quote with no date is a quote forever. In late November, when you are booked solid, the homeowner who sat on a September price for ten weeks calls to accept it. Either you honour it and lose the slot or you refuse and lose the customer and the review. A printed valid-until date fixes both, and it gives you a natural reason to follow up a week before it lapses.

No deposit terms. "50 percent deposit" alone is not a term. Say how it is paid, whether it is refundable, what it reserves (the date, the product) and when the balance is due. Every installer we know who has been stuck holding custom-cut track for a house that cancelled learned this the hard way.

Hand-typed math. A footage typed into one box and a price typed into another can disagree, and eventually they will. Thirty quotes into October you transpose 112 and 121 or forget to add the second gable, the homeowner signs, and now the wrong price is the contract. This is the mistake no template can fix, because a template is a text box.

Two more from experience: measuring from Google imagery (against Google's terms, and often years out of date, so the new addition or the missing tree is not in the picture), and forgetting takedown as its own line on seasonal work, which turns a January afternoon into free labour.

How GlowBid prints this from the drawing

In GlowBid the estimate is not a form you fill; it is the output of the drawing. You open the customer's photo on one canvas, set the scale from the garage door, and draw each run as a roofline, ridge line, peak or jump. The footage comes off the drawn line, and the price comes off your rate card, which holds your product lines, your per-foot rate by run type, your kits, your premiums for peaks and upper storeys and your add-ons. Drawn line, footage and price are one object, so they cannot disagree, and if you drag a corner the total updates.

The quote PDF that comes out has the same fourteen parts as the template above: your header and logo, the customer and property, the scope block (product, colour, bulb spacing, includes, warranty, valid until), the mockup of the lights on the house, line items by run with the peak and storey premiums, jumps and peaks counted, add-ons, any discount, the minimum job if it applies, subtotal, tax, total, the deposit due to book, the measurement disclaimer, and your terms. The homeowner e-signs it on their phone, pays the deposit through Stripe, and the signed copy prints with their name, the date and a document fingerprint so it stands on its own. The invoice follows from the same numbers.

If you only want the measuring part today, the free roofline tool draws and measures from a photo with no login until you export. The full loop, from drawing to signed estimate to deposit, is on every plan, and founding prices start at $299 a year for Core with a 7-day trial.