Christmas light takedown across metro Atlanta
Hanging lights is the fun part. January is not. Christmas Lights North Atlanta removes holiday displays across metro Atlanta clip by clip, coils and labels every run by location, leaves nothing behind in your fascia, and stores the whole display until fall if you want it out of the garage. We take down lights we hung, lights another company hung, and lights you hung yourself. Quotes are free, written, and itemized.
Off the roof, out of the garage, done for the year
Every January the same scene plays out across metro Atlanta: a cold Saturday, a ladder on soft ground, and a homeowner working staples out of fascia board while wondering why the lights went up so much more easily than they are coming down. Takedown is the half of holiday lighting nobody plans for in October.
If we installed your display, this is already handled. January removal is inside every package we hang, along with in-season service calls at no charge, and package customers are scheduled first. This page is for everyone else: displays you hung yourself, displays that came with the house, and work left behind by an installer who has stopped answering the phone. We will take any of it down properly.
Proper matters more in January than most people expect. Rushed removal is where light damage happens. Strands get yanked instead of unclipped, cord gets wound into knots that never come out, and cold plastic snaps at the socket because it has gone brittle in a freeze. Our crews come off a roof the same way we go on: clip by clip, cord supported so nothing whips across a gutter, then each run coiled to a consistent loop and tagged by where it hung. Front roofline. Left maple. Porch rail. Next November starts organized instead of archaeological.
Christmas Lights North Atlanta started in Cumming in 2018 and now works across metro Atlanta, and the crew has pulled lights off two-story colonials in Roswell, brick ranches in Smyrna, and new builds with long straight fascia out toward Douglasville, in every kind of January weather Georgia offers. Send photos of the display through the contact form or call or text (470) 777-7443, and a free written, itemized quote usually comes back within one business day.
Any display, any installer
Do-it-yourself displays, another company's work, the previous owner's mystery wiring in the attic soffit: the crew removes all of it. Each run is inspected as it comes down, so you find out which strands are worth keeping before they go in a box, and anything you want hauled off leaves on the truck.
Damage-free removal
No yanking, no prying, no staples left in your fascia. Clips come off the way they went on, gutters and shingle edges stay as we found them, and trunk wraps are unwound from the top down so small branches are not stripped. Crews are fully insured for ladder and roof work.
Coiled, labeled, boxed
Every run gets coiled to an even loop and tagged with where it hung and whether it tested good. Timers, extension runs, clips, and stakes are bagged and labeled the same way. Next fall the display can be rehung from the labels alone, with no untangling session on the garage floor.
Optional off-season storage
Garage space is real estate. Add labeled storage and the boxes leave with the crew, stay sorted by section through the year, and come back in the fall, either for our crew to reinstall or for you to pick up before you hang them yourself.
What a takedown visit looks like
The crew works the display in reverse install order. Roofline runs come off first, unclipped socket by socket with the cord supported so nothing whips loose or snags a gutter seam. Ladders are set on levelers for uneven winter ground, steep pitches are worked from the ladder rather than off wet shingles, and a second crew member foots anything tall. Nobody works a wet roof; a rain morning slides to the next dry window and you get a call.
Tree wraps come next, unwound from the top down. It is slower than pulling from the bottom and it is the only way to keep small branches attached to the tree. Beds and pathways come last, with stakes pulled, cord lifted out from under mulch, and the mulch line put back the way it was.
As each run comes down it gets inspected, coiled around the forearm to a consistent loop, and tagged: where it hung, whether it tested good, anything worth knowing in November. Timers, extension runs, clips, and stakes are bagged and labeled the same way. A typical single-family takedown finishes in one to three hours depending on rooflines and how many trees are wrapped. The crew walks the roofline and the beds one more time, and the only sign lights were ever up is the stack of boxes in the garage, or on our truck if you added storage.
The January ladder problem
Ladder falls are the injury behind most do-it-yourself holiday lighting, and the takedown weeks are worse than the install weeks. In November the job is fun and the weather is mild. In January it is a chore in the cold, done fast, often alone. Wet leaves pack the gutter exactly where a hand goes for balance, and early-morning frost sits on the ladder rungs and the first two feet of roof.
Cold makes the product worse too. Vinyl cord stiffens, clips lose their spring, and brittle plastic sockets snap when a strand is pulled instead of unclipped. That is how a display that would have lasted five more seasons becomes a trip to the hardware store next fall.
Professional crews bring stabilized ladders, the right height for the elevation instead of the tallest one in the garage, and the simple advantage of doing this every week of the month. What takes a homeowner a nervous half Saturday takes a two-person crew about an hour, with nobody's family watching from the yard.
Takedown as the start of next season
A careful takedown quietly does next year's prep. The inspection at the coil stage tells you which runs are aging out in January, when replacements are unhurried, rather than in the middle of November when everyone in the metro is shopping for the same thing.
The labels do the rest. A box reading "front roofline, 62 ft, tested good" alongside a photo of the display lit is a complete reinstall plan. Homeowners who rehang their own lights tell us a labeled takedown cuts their setup time roughly in half, because the guesswork about which run goes where is already done.
January is also the natural moment to change how you handle all of this. We already know the display, we may already be storing it, and a full package turns next season into one phone call in the fall: design, product, install, timers, in-season service, and takedown under one number. Our full installation service covers what that includes, and the residential page shows how a home package comes together. If you would rather never schedule a takedown again, permanent roofline lighting is installed February through September and stays up year round.
Where we take down lights
Takedown covers the same metro Atlanta territory as our installs, from the north suburbs where the company started to in-town neighborhoods, through Cobb and Gwinnett, and south and west of the perimeter. January routing is tight because the season is short, so crews run geographic clusters: a Cherokee County day covers Woodstock and Canton back to back, while a Perimeter day handles Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. Flexibility within your week usually gets your lights down sooner, since we can fit you into the nearest cluster.
Housing stock changes what a takedown takes. Two-story colonials with foyer peaks need taller ladders and more setup moves per run. Ranch rooflines come off quickly. New builds with long uninterrupted fascia are the fastest of all, and older in-town homes with porch roofs, dormers, and mature front-yard hardwoods take the longest, mostly because of the trees.
Commercial buildings, storefronts, and community entrances are removed on the same terms, scheduled around business hours where that matters. Send photos, tell us the address, and we will tell you what the January calendar looks like.
Takedown questions from metro Atlanta homeowners
What people ask in January, usually from the bottom of a ladder.
Will you take down lights that someone else installed?
Yes, and it is a large share of our January work. Homeowner displays, other companies' installs, and lights that came with the house all get removed the same careful way. Send photos of what is up, including anything wrapped on trees, and we will quote the removal in writing. Staples and screws left by a previous installer come out with the strands.
How is takedown quoted?
Free, written, and itemized, built from photos or a short visit. What moves it is the same measurement that drives an install: roofline footage and how much of it is at second-story height or above, roof access and pitch, how many trees are wrapped and how far up, and whether pathway stakes and beds are involved. The number is confirmed before a truck rolls.
When does takedown happen?
Through January. Customers on full seasonal packages are scheduled first, and takedown-only bookings fill the calendar around them. Booking before New Year's usually gets you an early-January slot. Wait until mid-month and you are competing for the dry, above-freezing days that Georgia hands out sparingly in the middle of winter.
Do I have to be home?
No. The crew works from the exterior and needs access to the yard and the display, so most takedowns happen while people are at work. If you want the boxes stacked somewhere specific in the garage, leave the garage open or tell us where to set them. If you have added storage, nothing needs to be left open at all.
What if some of my lights are broken?
You get an honest answer as each run is coiled. Commercial-grade cord with screw-in bulbs usually survives many seasons and is worth boxing. Retail strings with molded sockets often do not survive one, and cold weather is where they fail. Dead strands are hauled off with your permission rather than boxed to disappoint you next November.
Can you store everything until next season?
Yes. Labeled boxes leave with the crew and come back in the fall. Storage works best paired with a reinstall booking, because the same labels that organized the takedown make the next install faster: the front roofline run is already cut to your footage and tagged, so the crew is hanging within minutes of arriving.
Get the lights down without touching a ladder
Call or text (470) 777-7443, or send a few photos of your display through the contact form, and a free written, itemized quote usually comes back within one business day, confirmed before the crew rolls. Removed clip by clip, coiled, labeled, and optionally stored until fall. Booking before New Year's gets the best January dates.