When Should You Start Planning a Holiday Light Show?
(Sooner Than You Think)
Every August, the same thing happens. Somewhere between the beach trip and back-to-school shopping, members of a property team look at the calendar, feel a tiny chill, and ask the question: is it too late to do something amazing this holiday season?
We love this question. Here's the honest answer, from the design side of the table.
The short version
Campus-wide spectacular (a resort, a large garden trail, an entire shopping district): 9–24 months out. These are shows with infrastructure, phased builds, and often a multi-year vision.
Major facade light show (the kind that stops a sidewalk): 9–12 months out.
A focused, single-statement moment (one tree, one entry, an unforgettable photo op): a well-run summer start still makes the season.
Reading this in August wondering about this year? Ask. Sometimes the answer is a very enthusiastic yes.
Why so long?
The first schedule-eater is the obvious one — procurement and fabrication take longer than anyone expects. Custom fixtures, engineered ornaments, and specialty LED goods live in complicated supply chains chains and often have to be “touched” by a lot of hands before they’re installed. I’m sure it’s no surprise… but, "expedited" is a word that costs a lot of money in October.
But the bigger schedule-buster is the one nobody warns you about: the best installers, integrators, programmers, and content creators fill their calendars early. The top-tier of holiday production is a fairly small club of excellent people, and by late summer, the excellent ones are usually booked. By early fall, they’ve even started trying to slot-in to support the collaborators sliding into their DMs. Start early and you get the A-team, the fair pricing, and the calm production meeting. Start late and you're choosing from a more shallow talent pool at rush rates, with increase stress.
Starting early isn't cautious. It's how the great shows get made.
The secret the best properties know
The smartest holiday budgets are based upon traditions, not transactions. A show designed for annual reuse (with refurbishment and incremental additions) is the most cost-effective way to start and build a tradition. Year three is when local press starts calling it "beloved." That math only works if year one is designed with years two through ten in mind.
Wherever you are in the calendar, start now
Whether you're a property team dreaming about next year's spectacular or holding an August idea that can't wait, the first step is the same: Start the conversation
The sooner we talk, the better the show. That's not a sales line; it's just how the calendar works.
