Service area
Christmas Light Installation in Lake Forest
We hang C9 lights on Lake Forest rooflines, wrap trees, light the entry and garage, and take it all down in January. It is straight up El Toro Road from our base in Laguna Hills — the next city north, and an easy one to get back to mid-season.
Homes in Lake Forest
Lake Forest holds about forty years of housing inside one set of city limits, and the difference from one end to the other is bigger than anywhere else we work.
At the older end sit Lake Forest Keys and Serrano Park. The Keys are built around two man-made lakes, some homes with private docks. These are 1970s houses: low roof pitches, wide eaves, mostly single-story or split-level, composition shingle. The roofline is simple and it reads beautifully with a single run of C9s.
In the middle sit Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills, which finished building out around 2000 in Mediterranean and Spanish-revival styles. That means stucco walls, clay or concrete tile roofs, arched entries and a lot more roof planes per house — gables, hips, a garage wing, sometimes a tower over the door. More shape means more line, more clips, and a better-looking result when it is done properly.
At the new end, Baker Ranch was delivered roughly between 2017 and 2020 and Serrano Summit is newer still. Tighter lots, taller elevations, less street-facing roofline than the square footage suggests. On those homes the entry, the garage and a wrapped tree usually carry as much of the display as the roof does.
One more local detail: Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills back onto Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, so those streets sit right at the mouth of the canyon. Everything gets clipped down rather than draped loose up there.
Communities and HOAs in Lake Forest
This city splits cleanly in two on rules as well as housing. The newer master-planned tracts — Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills, Baker Ranch, Serrano Summit — come with associations and design guidelines. A lot of the older Lake Forest streets are not in an association at all.
If you are in one, many associations around here publish lighting guidelines: the dates a display may be up, the colours, whether a timer is required. We will not pretend to know yours without reading it. Send us what it says and we design inside it. If you are not in one, then the only rules are the ones you set.
What a display costs in Lake Forest
Two packages, two published bands, the same in every city we cover: $400–$800 for the Basic Roofline and $1,000–$2,500 for the Premium Full Front.
What moves a Lake Forest home inside a band: total feet of roofline, how many stories, how many separate roof planes there are, and whether the entry, garage, trees, bushes and pathway are included.
Age is the shortcut that explains most of it. A 1970s single-story on a wide Keys lot is usually a straightforward roofline job. A 2000-era Mediterranean home with five roof planes and a tower carries far more line in the same square footage. A 2019 Baker Ranch home is taller and tighter again. Same two packages, three genuinely different jobs — which is why we quote from your photos, not by the foot.
How booking works in Lake Forest
- Text two photos of the front, one straight on and one from an angle. Mention the roof material — tile and shingle take different clips.
- You get a real number back inside one of the bands, with what is included.
- We install between October 15 and December 10. Pick the window that suits you and we set timers so you never touch a switch.
- Maintenance runs all season, then January takedown. We take it down and store it. A bulb goes out, you call, we come back out.
The calendar opens in September and the first half of November fills first.
Questions we get from Lake Forest
My street is not in an HOA. Do I need anyone's approval?
No. Plenty of the older Lake Forest streets have no association at all, and in that case the design is simply whatever you want. If you are not sure whether your street is in one, your property tax bill or your closing paperwork will tell you — and if you turn out to be in one, send us what it says and nothing about the process changes.
I am in Foothill Ranch and my roof is tile. Does that cost extra?
No. Tile is standard on the Mediterranean and Spanish-revival homes here and it does not carry a surcharge. It changes which clip we bring, not the price band and not the fastener — nothing gets nailed or stapled into a tile roof. Just tell us it is tile when you send the photos.
Do you work in the newer tracts like Baker Ranch and Serrano Summit?
Yes, at the same two bands as anywhere else. Newer homes here are taller with shorter frontages, so the balance usually shifts toward the entry, the garage and a wrapped tree rather than a long roofline run. Send a photo taken from across the street if you can — on a tight lot that is the shot that shows us what the display will actually look like.
The two packages, and what they cost
Same two packages and the same published price bands everywhere we work. Where your home lands inside a band comes down to roofline length, how many stories, and how much of the property you want lit.
Basic Roofline
$400–$800
- C9 LED lights along the roofline, sized to your home
- Timers set so you never touch a switch
- Roof-safe clips — no nails, no staples
- Install and January removal both included
- Maintenance all season: a bulb goes out, we come back and fix it
Premium Full Front
$1,000–$2,500
- Everything in Basic Roofline
- Entry and garage lit
- Trees and bushes wrapped
- Pathway and railing lights
- Custom colours, and a wreath if you want one
Custom designs outside both packages are fine, and we do commercial properties as well as homes. Want it up all year instead? See permanent RGB roofline lighting.
More reading before you book
Four pages answer almost everything people ask us:
- What Christmas light installation actually costs — what moves a price inside each band, and why we quote by package instead of by the foot.
- The questions we get asked most — who owns the lights, what happens if it rains on your install day, HOA approval, and when the last useful day to book is.
- The gallery — real photos of our own work, so you can see what each package looks like on a house instead of reading about it.
- How the whole service works — the four steps from your first text to January takedown.
Nearby cities we also cover
Same two packages, same price bands, same maintenance:
- Christmas lights in Mission Viejo
- Christmas lights in Irvine
- Christmas lights in Rancho Santa Margarita
The full list is on the service areas page — thirteen cities, all of them close enough that we can come back out if a bulb goes.
Get your quote
Name and phone is all we need to start. Most quotes come back the same day.