Every fall, the same phone call: it's the week before Thanksgiving, a Southlake homeowner wants lights up before family arrives Thursday, and we have to say the thing nobody enjoys hearing — the calendar filled weeks ago. This post is the antidote: the actual, honest timeline of how install windows fill in our West zone (Southlake, Colleyville, Grapevine), so you can decide when to act instead of finding out the hard way.
Why Southlake fills first
We schedule DFW in three zones so crews stay local, and the West zone — Southlake, Colleyville, and Grapevine — opens first every season. Two reasons. First, it's home: we're based in Colleyville, and the earliest crew-days of the season stay close to the shop. Second, demand: these are the neighborhoods where professional lighting is closest to a default, and where 8 in 10 of our customers are repeat bookings who already hold a standing install week.
That second point is the one new customers underestimate. A big share of the West-zone calendar is spoken for before it ever opens to the public, because returning customers re-book their same week during August and September. What's left is what October buyers are choosing from.
The month-by-month reality
August–September: the quiet insider window
Returning customers re-book, and new customers who plan ahead get effectively the same privilege: full choice of install weeks, including the earliest pre-Thanksgiving slots. Booking a Christmas light install in August feels absurd, and it is exactly what the most relaxed Decembers on your street did.
Early October: new windows open — and the clock starts
This is when most new Southlake customers should act. Quotes are unhurried, every install week is still available, and you can pick based on your holiday calendar (hosting Thanksgiving? lighting for a party?) rather than taking what's left.
Mid-to-late October: the pre-Thanksgiving deadline
Here's the honest line: if you want your display glowing before Thanksgiving in the West zone, book by roughly mid-October. After that, pre-Thanksgiving weeks go from "pick one" to "ask nicely and hope for a cancellation."
November: early-December installs, moving fast
The first half of November still gets you a solid early-December install — lights up for the neighborhood's peak weeks and your holiday hosting. By late November we're scheduling the last install days of the season, and complex jobs (estates, big tree work) may no longer fit at all.
December: possible, not promised
We finish every season with a handful of December installs — usually smaller rooflines, squeezed into service days. It never hurts to ask. It also never feels good to pay for a display that glows for eleven days.
Two ways to beat the calendar entirely
Book with a neighbor. When two or more homes on a street book the same crew-day, everyone saves and the whole block gets scheduled as a unit — we do this constantly in Timarron, Carillon, and across West-zone neighborhoods. One October conversation over a fence is worth real money.
Become a returning customer once. After your first season, you inherit the repeat-customer privilege: your install week is held for you the following year before public windows open. The first booking is the only one you'll ever have to time.
The short version
Southlake, Colleyville, and Grapevine fill first, in this order: returning customers (late summer), early planners (early October), everyone else (whatever's left). Want pre-Thanksgiving glow? Book by mid-October. Want zero stress forever? Book once, then re-book every August like the rest of the street.
