My mom had rotator cuff surgery last October, and by mid-November she had figured out the Christmas decorating service cost for her house before she admitted to anyone that she needed one. She is 67. She has decorated the same split-level every year since 1994: a nine-foot tree, the mantel, the garland up the stairs, a wreath on every window facing the street. Eleven bins in the basement.
With one arm in a sling, none of that was happening. My brother offered to do it and then got a work trip. I have a two-hour drive and a toddler. So in the second week of November we sat at her kitchen table with a legal pad and called three decorators. The quotes came back at $675, $1,150 and $1,900, and they were not three prices for the same thing.
What a Christmas decorating service does
I had assumed these were the same people who put lights on rooflines. Some of them are. But a lot of holiday decorators never touch a ladder outside. They work indoors: the tree, the mantel, the stair rail, the dining table, sometimes the front door. They’re closer to a home stager than to a lighting crew.
If you only want the outside of the house lit, that’s a different job with different pricing, and I walked through it in Christmas light installation. If you’re tired of paying for that every year, permanent Christmas lights cost runs the numbers on the system that stays up year-round.
All three decorators opened with the same question: would they be hanging Mom’s eleven bins, or bringing their own? That answer sorted the quotes before we heard a single price.
The three quotes for my mom’s house
Same house, same week, the Chicago suburbs, November 2025. About 2,100 square feet, a living room with a fireplace, an open staircase, a dining room.
- An independent decorator who works alone charged $75 an hour and estimated six hours to put up Mom’s own things: tree, mantel, banister and the dining table. That’s $450. Takedown in January was another three hours, $225. Total $675.
- A local holiday decorating company quoted a flat $1,150. That covered the same four spots using Mom’s decorations, plus lights on the two front shrubs with their own commercial strands, plus takedown and repacking in the first week of January.
- A designer who brings everything quoted $1,900. Her own tree, her own ornaments in a color scheme you pick from a card, all of it rented for the season. In January she takes it away. Mom’s bins would never leave the basement.
Those numbers sit inside the ranges I’ve seen in national cost guides since. ThePricer puts full-service holiday decorating anywhere from about $300 to $2,500 or more, with a typical job near $1,500. Where you land depends on how much of the house they touch and whose decorations they’re hanging.
What drives the Christmas decorating service cost up
By the third call, Mom was answering questions before they asked. These were the ones that moved the price:
- Tree height. Anything over eight feet means a taller ladder and more time on the lights. Her nine-footer added an hour to the independent decorator’s estimate.
- Real or artificial. Nobody would carry a fresh tree in from a lot for free. The company wanted $125 to pick one up, and the designer only works with her own artificial trees.
- How organized the bins are. Two of the three asked about it. One said a messy basement can double her time.
- Takedown. It’s usually quoted as a separate visit. The company included it, and the designer’s rental covered it.
- Timing. Everyone wanted to know the date. The weekend after Thanksgiving was booked solid by the time we called in mid-November, and one decorator charged more for the first two weeks of December.
That last one is why I’m writing this in September. The decorators who are good fill their calendars early.
Is it worth paying someone? The ladder math
Mom’s argument for doing it herself, sling or no sling, was that it costs nothing. My argument was a number I found on the Consumer Product Safety Commission site. In the 2016 holiday season there were about 14,700 ER-treated decorating injuries, around 240 a day through November and December. Falls were 41 percent of them.
She has a nine-foot tree and a staircase. With one working arm, the star alone was a bad idea.
For her, then, yes. A Christmas decorating service cost less than one more trip to the orthopedist. For me, in my one-story house with a six-foot tree, no. I do my own in an afternoon. I’d only hire for the parts that mean a ladder, the stairs or a very tall tree, and do the rest myself.
| Option | Whose decorations | What went up | Takedown | Mom’s quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent decorator, hourly | Mom’s eleven bins | Tree, mantel, banister, dining table | Separate visit, 3 hours | $450 + $225 = $675 |
| Local decorating company, flat rate | Mom’s, plus their outdoor strands | Same four spots plus two front shrubs | Included, repacked into her bins | $1,150 |
| Designer with rental decor | The designer’s, rented for the season | Tree, mantel, banister, table, front door | Included, she takes it all away | $1,900 |
| Fresh tree pickup (add-on) | n/a | Choosing and carrying in a real tree | n/a | $125 from the company |
Three mistakes with a Christmas decorating service cost
- Comparing quotes without asking whose decor it is. The $1,900 designer looked expensive until we saw it included a whole rented tree and every ornament. The $675 one looked cheap until we counted what Mom had to supply.
- Forgetting the takedown visit. Half the effort of Christmas is January. Ask whether the price covers taking it down and packing it back, and on what date.
- Handing over lights nobody tested. A decorator on an hourly rate is an expensive person to watch you untangle a dead strand. Test every string the week before.
Grab the free printable: my one-page Holiday Decorator Call Sheet, with the questions all three decorators asked, a box for whose decorations are going up, and a line for the takedown date. Get the free sheet →
What didn’t work: my “helpful” night before
We booked the independent decorator for a Saturday. On Friday night I drove up to get things ready, and I made it worse.
I hauled all eleven bins up from the basement and started “pre-sorting.” Tree things in one pile, mantel things in another. I pulled the ornament hooks out of their bag so they’d be easy to grab, and dumped them into a mixing bowl. I did not test a single light.
On Saturday the decorator spent the first forty minutes undoing my piles, because I’d put the stair garland with the mantel and the tree topper with nothing. Then she plugged in the lights. Two of the six tree strands were dead. At $75 an hour I watched her try to find the bad bulb for twenty minutes before I drove to the hardware store for two new strands ($38). That’s about an hour and a half of paid time I created myself.
The U.S. Fire Administration’s holiday fire safety page says to check every strand before you put it up each year and throw out any with damaged wiring. One of Mom’s dead ones had a flattened spot where it had been stuffed under the bin lid for years. It went in the trash that afternoon.
What I’d do now: leave the bins closed and labeled the way they were packed, test the lights a week ahead, and let the person you’re paying run her own system. If your bins are the reason you dread December, how to store Christmas decorations is how Mom’s got repacked this January. They’re labeled by room now.
If the tree is the part you dread most, a nursery can bring a living one in a pot and pick it up again in January. I wrote up what it cost us to rent a Christmas tree for our living room, and the care rules that come with it.
How to book a Christmas decorating service without overpaying
- Decide whose decorations go up before you call. That one answer sorts the quotes into the right bucket.
- Book in September or October for a late-November install. Ask for the takedown date in the same call.
- Get the price in writing per spot (tree, mantel, stairs, table) so you can drop one if the total is too high.
- Test the lights, count the bins, and tell them the tree height.
- Clear the space first. If the living room is already full, go through decluttering before the holidays first. Decorators work faster in a room with a clear floor.
Mom went with the $675 option. She tipped $40 each visit, and the decorator was done by two in the afternoon. She sat on the couch with her sling and pointed at where the angel goes, which was how she wanted to be involved all along.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Christmas decorating service cost?
For my mom’s 2,100-square-foot house in November 2025, the quotes were $675 for an hourly decorator using her own decorations (install plus takedown), $1,150 for a company package with takedown and front-shrub lights, and $1,900 for a designer who rented everything. National guides put most full-service jobs between about $300 and $2,500.
Does a holiday decorator take the decorations down too?
Sometimes. Companies and rental designers often include takedown in the price. Independent decorators usually quote it as a second visit. Ask for the date and the price before you book.
When should I book a Christmas decorator?
September or October if you want the weekend after Thanksgiving. We called in mid-November and that weekend was gone with all three.
If you’re thinking about it this year, do two things this week. Go down to wherever the bins live, count them and test one string of lights. Then call one decorator, tell her the tree height and whose decorations are going up, and ask for the takedown date in the same call.
Get my free Home Reset Planner
The calm, room-by-room planner I use to reset my whole home without the overwhelm. Join the newsletter and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime. — Lena
Keep reading — more on Home Services & Costs
Dryer Vent Cleaning Cost (and Why Fall Is When I Book It)
Hot Tub Removal Cost: What We Paid to Get Ours Gone
Rent a Christmas Tree: What Our Potted Spruce Cost (and Asked of Us)
