Professional Christmas lighting comes with a choice most homeowners haven't thought about until the quote arrives: do you own the display, or lease it? We offer both, we make money either way, and we genuinely don't care which you pick — which makes us a decent referee for the question. Here's the real math.
What each option actually is
Owning: you buy your custom-cut display in year one — the commercial-grade C9 line cut to your exact roofline, the tree-wrap minis, the greenery. It's your property. Every season after, you pay only for the service: install, all-season care, takedown, and storage.
Leasing: we own the hardware; you pay one even price each season for the complete package — hardware, install, maintenance, takedown, storage, and replacement of anything that wears out, forever. You never buy a bulb.
Either way, the experience is identical: same crew, same custom fit, same timers, same January takedown. The only difference is whose garage-ledger the lights live on.
The five-season shape
Owning is a J-curve: year one costs the most (hardware + service), then every following season drops to service-only — noticeably less than a lease year. Somewhere around season two to three, the owner pulls ahead, and by season five the total spend is meaningfully lower than five lease payments.
Leasing is a flat line: the same predictable number every year, no upfront bump, and the replacement guarantee means an ice storm that wrecks a section costs you nothing and never will.
So the crude summary: owning wins on total cost if you stay put and keep lighting; leasing wins on predictability, zero upfront, and zero hardware risk.
The question that usually decides it
"Do you expect to light this same house, roughly this same way, for the next three or more years?"
Yes → owning is probably your answer. The display is custom-cut to this roofline; its value is married to this house, and you'll be past the break-even while the lights still have most of their life ahead.
No, or not sure → lease. Moving, planning an addition, might redesign the display bigger next year, just want to try professional lighting once — the lease keeps every option open and someone else owns the risk.
Three honest footnotes
1. Custom-cut line doesn't move houses well. A display cut for your roofline fits your roofline. If you move across town, some of it adapts, some doesn't — factor that into "will we be here a while?"
2. Owned displays still get serviced. All-season repairs are part of our service package whichever model you're on. The difference is long-term replacement: owners eventually pay for aging hardware; lessees never do.
3. You can switch. Plenty of customers lease season one, fall in love with a design, and buy it. Starting with a lease is not a life sentence.
The short version
Staying put and lighting yearly? Own — cheaper over time. Value flexibility or hate upfront costs? Lease — flat, safe, forever-replaced. Can't decide? Pick "Help me choose" in our quote designer and we'll show you both numbers for your actual house, side by side.
