3 Creative Ways to Integrate Lighting into Your Business’s Holiday Decorations

Decorating your business for the holidays is a different ball game compared to decorating your home. After all, more planning is needed to attract customers and give them that warm, fuzzy feeling of the holiday season.

Light is perhaps the simplest way to create a strong visual impact focused on specific themes, whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Below are a few ways to use light to your business’s advantage this holiday season.

Use a Holiday Staple: String Lights

When it comes to adding cheer and brightness to any commercial establishment, you can never go wrong with string lights. Simply use adhesive clips or tape to hang string lights along your walls.

It’s a good idea to invest in a good set of string lights so you can reuse them year after year. When in doubt, go for LED string lights as they last longer and generate a brighter and better quality of light. For spaces away from power outlets, you can use battery-powered string lights to get the same effect.

An alternative to LED string lights are tape lights, which come with adhesive and can be installed discreetly near displays and counters. This way, your customers see the light produced by these LED tapes but not the actual source.

Take Things a Notch Higher with C7 and C9 Bulbs

If you want to take your business’s holiday lights to the next level, you can purchase pre-made light screw fittings in strings and install C7 or C9 bulbs, which can be purchased in bulk if you want to save money. Since the bulbs are sold separately from the fittings, you can customize the shape, brightness, and colors of the bulb that you want to use, giving you more creative freedom.

A couple of important reminders for safety, try to not go more than 216 Watts on a single circuit. In general, you can use an LED C7 bulb or anything similar to a C9 at 0.6 Watts per bulb. Keep it below 360 sockets per circuit as well. This should give you around 350 feet or so to work with, which is more than enough for most commercial applications. The longer you want the string to be, the more professional help you should get, just to keep things on the safe side.

Build a Light Installation

If you really want your establishment to catch everyone’s eyes, then you might want to consider installing a light installation in your commercial space. Malls and hotels do it all the time, creating installations such as snowmen or large Christmas trees. Light displays come in all shapes and sizes, and can even be customized to match your brand.

For light installations, you’ll need to prepare a dedicated power supply to ensure everyone’s safety. Combine a variety of holiday lights with music to create a synchronized and automated light show.

Whatever type of holiday lights you use to decorate your business, just make sure you plan according to code. If you’re not sure how to get started, talk to a lighting designer.