Holiday Lighting profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Holiday Lighting falls under Administrative and support services. For tax year 2023, 3,118,914 returns reported $114.4 billion in receipts, $17.9 billion in cost of sales and $24.2 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 84.3% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 21.2% |
| Average receipts per return | $36,687 |
| Average net income per return | $7,769 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in holiday lighting
Holiday lighting is labor, the lights and storage. The install season is short, so crew time and ladders are the scarce part.
Where holiday lighting margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Takedown and storage not priced
- Lights given away at cost
- Service calls during the season done free
- Routes spread too far apart
- No deposit to hold the install date
Ways holiday lighting installers raise margin: price takedown and storage into the season; take a deposit to hold the install date; sell next year's install at takedown; build routes by neighborhood.
Check your holiday lighting prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Install with lights supplied | $3.75 | $2.50 to $5.00 a foot |
| Install with the customer's lights | $2.50 | $1.50 to $3.50 a foot |
| Smallest full-service job | $234 | $218 to $250 a job |
| Tree wrap, small | $100 | $75 to $125 a tree |
| Tree wrap, medium | $188 | $125 to $250 a tree |
| Outdoor timer | $26 | $11.00 to $40 a timer |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual holiday lighting menu: install with lights supplied; install with the customer's lights; smallest full-service job; tree wrap, small; tree wrap, medium; outdoor timer; wreaths and garland; takedown; storage until next season; service call for outages.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In holiday lighting it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are contractors as a group pay an average of $83 a month for; commercial auto at $270 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent holiday lighting job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for contractors as a group, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr, Christmas light installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, Christmas light installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.