The Why’s and How’s of Commercial Christmas Lighting

Xmas lights and other touches lend a festive air to non-residential environments

If the economy has you thinking about cutting down on or eliminating Xmas lights and other decorations from your business this year, you may want to re-consider your strategy. Consumers have come to expect to see festive lighting where they shop, as well as at commercial establishments in general. Commercial Christmas lighting not only allows operations to create a welcoming environment for customers and clients, but helps to set them apart from the pack and keeps people coming back for more of whatever products or services you offer. Additionally, Xmas lights and other types of decoration get employees into the holiday spirit, bolstering their own productivity.

Leading with LED Christmas lights

One of the best and most festive lighting options you can select is LED Christmas lights. LED Christmas lights have become a popular Christmas lights sub-category–for commercial Christmas lighting and residential lighting purposes alike–because they are highly affordable and energy-efficient. Traditional incandescent mini-bulbs have filaments, but LED lights do not–meaning they need about 88% less energy to operate as well as generate less heat than other kinds of bulbs. LED lights are also manufactured from heavy plastic, yielding them a durability that’s especially favorable for commercial establishments. You can hang LED lights as you would other types of Christmas lighting, or make them part of a Christmas village scene. Also worth considering are LED icicle lights, which look like real icicles and come in a variety of shapes, such as traditional, snowflake, and star, and colors, like white, blue, pink, and purple.

Getting it done

For many businesses, municipalities, and the like, using commercial Christmas lighting has come to mean more than hanging a few strings of Christmas lights. Throughout the country, you can find a wealth of companies that specialize in commercial Christmas design and offer full custom décor and program packages. These firms generally send an expert to photograph the area or areas to be decorated, then utilize color digital graphics to enhance the photo(s) and replicate the desired look for client approval. Christmas lights and other decorations are then fully installed according to clients’ specifications, with any necessary alterations made during the process.

A hybrid approach

Despite the appeal of employing a custom design firm to create commercial Christmas lighting designs, doing so is often outside businesses’ budgetary parameters. In recognition of this fact, some design companies have begun to promote hybrid programs that comprise custom decorations whose price is relatively competitive with standard catalog decorations. To do this, they take “stock” pre-existing designs and personalize them with unique elements, such as special Christmas lighting treatments.  The end-result is, for the most part, unique, but is less costly to design and produce because it does not come entirely from scratch. But no matter what approach you take to commercial Christmas lighting, don’t neglect this essential this Christmas.