Residential Holiday Lighting

You know the house. Every street on the South Shore has one — the roofline drawn in one clean line of warm light, the maple out front glowing trunk to tips, a wreath centered over the door, and nothing drooping from a gutter. That is not a homeowner with a free Saturday and a ladder. It is a planned display, installed by people who do this for a living, and it is what Hynes Landscaping brings to homes across Stoughton, the South Shore, Greater Boston, and MetroWest.

It works like the rest of our residential programs: we design it for your house, our crews install it, we keep it lit through New Year's, and we take it down and store it in January. The ladder, the roof, the frozen gutter clips, the tangle in the basement — none of that is yours anymore. You come home in the dark and the house is already lit.

Call 781-356-3311 and we will walk the property with you, usually within the week.

Every house has three or four features that carry the display; the design visit is about finding them:

• Roofline and gables — the frame for everything else. Eaves, peaks, and dormers traced in one continuous line, cut to the length of each run so corners are crisp and nothing sags.
• Windows and door frames — outlining the front windows and entry gives a colonial or a cape that storybook, lit-from-inside look.
• Tree trunks and canopies — a maple or oak wrapped up the trunk and out along the limbs becomes the centerpiece of the yard; smaller ornamentals get the canopy draped.
• Shrubs and hedges — net and mini lights over foundation plantings and hedge lines tie the house to the yard.
• Wreaths and garland — full, lit greenery on the front door, over the garage, down porch railings, around columns, and on the lamp post.
• Pathway and driveway accents — stake lights along the front walk and drive edge that lead guests to the door.

Our recommendation on most homes is warm white: it flatters brick, clapboard, and shingle alike and reads as classic rather than trendy. Families who want color can have it — cool white, red and white, multicolor, color-changing, or warm white on the house with one tree in color for the kids.

Every home is quoted on its own, but most requests fall into one of three scopes — starting points, not fixed-price packages.

Roofline Essentials. The front roofline traced in warm white plus a lit wreath at the entry. The single highest-impact thing you can do to a house, as right on a ranch as on a colonial, and where many first-year clients begin.

Roofline + Landscape. The front roofline, plus wrapped trees, lit shrubs and hedges, and garland on the railings or lamp post. The scope that makes a house look finished from the street, and the most common one we install.

Whole-Property. Front and rear rooflines, every tree and bed that deserves it, the back yard, pool fence, shed or barn, and the driveway out to the road. For families who host through the holidays.

What moves the number: feet of roofline and how complex it is (three gables and dormers is more work than one long eave), how many trees you want wrapped and how large they are, and whether you are leasing product for a first season or already own it. Your proposal is itemized by element — roofline, each tree, greenery, accents — so you can add or trim before we schedule, and the price is fixed before install day.

This is a seasonal service, not a one-time install. Every home gets the same list:

• A design visit at your house. We tour the property together and put a plan on paper before you commit.
• Commercial-grade LED, custom-cut to your house. Each run cut to the measured length of your roofline, windows, and trees, with weatherproof connections built for a New England winter.
• Timers set and tested. On at dusk, off when you want, every night, without you flipping a switch.
• Professional install. Trained crews, proper clips sized to your gutters and shingles, no staples or nails, and the ladder work is ours.
• Season-long maintenance. A bulb fails or a run goes dark, you call, and we are back — typically within a few days, not after New Year's.
• January takedown. We return after the holidays and take it all down; the house looks as it did in October.
• Labeled storage. Every run is tagged by location (front gable, left maple, porch rail) and stored at our facility.
• Your date held for next year. Returning homeowners are reserved for the same window next season before the calendar opens to new requests.

The first two weeks of November book first, and early. If you want to be lit before Thanksgiving guests arrive, be on the schedule by late October. For most homes the realistic deadline is Thanksgiving week — installs scheduled by then are lit for all of December. After that we keep installing into mid-December where the calendar allows, so if you are calling late, call anyway; a Roofline Essentials install is quick, and we will tell you plainly what is available.

Takedown runs through the first weeks of January and is on our calendar from the day we install — no need to call.

The roof in December is not where you want to be. Late November means ice on the shingles before the sun is up, a ladder set on frozen ground or wet leaves, and a pitch that looked fine from the driveway and feels very different at the eave. Our crews work at height all year, are insured for it, and always work in pairs. For a two- or three-story colonial, that is the entire argument.

Box-store strands are built to be thrown away. Hardware-aisle sets are made for one season and a milder climate; they dim, half-fail, and stop matching anything you can buy. The commercial-grade LED we install holds its brightness and color through sleet, ice, and wind, and if something fails, we carry the exact match.

January is a chore nobody misses. Pulling brittle clips off a gutter in 20-degree wind, then stuffing the lot into a bin, is the part that turns people off for good. With us, the only thing you do in January is notice the house is back to normal.

It is designed, not draped. We spend the rest of the year designing landscapes and building permanent Landscape Lighting, so we look at your house the way a designer does: scale, sightlines, what to light and what to leave dark. Many clients run both — permanent path and uplighting all year, with the holiday layer on top from November to January.

For storefronts, office parks, and HOAs, see our commercial holiday lighting on the main Holiday Lighting page.

Can I keep the lights I already own?

You can keep them, but we would rather not hang them. Consumer strands are not made for professional clip systems or two months of exposed New England weather, and when one fails mid-season there is rarely a matching replacement. A sentimental piece — a particular wreath, a lit figure the kids love — we are happy to work into the design; the roofline, trees, and greenery that carry the display should be our product.

What if a bulb goes out on December 20th?

Call 781-356-3311 and a crew comes back, usually within a few days. In-season repairs are included, not billed as a service call, and because we stock the exact bulbs and runs we installed, the repair is a matching swap rather than a patch.

Do you do condos and HOA-governed homes?

Yes. For a home in an HOA neighborhood, tell us what the guidelines say about color, timing, and attachment methods and we will design within them. For condos and townhouses we light the units we are hired for, and if the association wants the entrance or common areas done too, we handle those on the commercial side — one crew, one invoice.

How early do I need to book?

October is ideal and gets you a pre-Thanksgiving install; early November still works for most homes. By Thanksgiving week the best dates are gone, but we keep installing into December where we can, so it is always worth a call. Once you are a client, your window is held automatically the following year.

Is it really worth hiring out?

For most of our homeowners, the question answers itself the first time they pull into the driveway and the house is already lit. In practical terms, you are paying for a display that looks like the best houses on the street, product that will not fail in week two, a crew on the roof instead of you, repairs in season, takedown in January, and storage until next year. Against a weekend on a ladder and a bin of tangled strands in the basement, most people decide it is the easiest money they spend all season.

You have pictured what your house could look like in December. We will get you there — designed for your home, installed by insured crews, maintained all season, and gone by mid-January without you lifting a ladder.

Call 781-356-3311 or stop by 118 Cushing St, Stoughton, MA 02072 to schedule a residential holiday lighting visit anywhere on the South Shore, in Greater Boston, or across MetroWest.