How much Salt Lake's big Christmas light displays cost
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
/2023/12/18/1702940176810.gif?w=3840)
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
On my marathon tours to prepare our holiday lights guide for Salt Lake, I've been struck by how ubiquitous — and evenly dispersed — the truly phenomenal displays are.
- You'll find eye-popping homes in virtually every part of the valley, regardless of a neighborhood's wealth or income norms.
The intrigue: Holiday lights can be costly in equipment and energy, so one could reasonably expect the lavishness of displays to match the lavishness of the neighborhood.
- But that isn't the case. I've found decorations on a Santa-Threw-Up-On-My-House scale from Rose Park to Draper, and on every type of dwelling from palatial McMansions to apartment balconies.
By the numbers: The biggest cost is the equipment itself. Many of the houses in our Christmas lights guide have more than 10,000 lights; several have far more, up to 600,000.
- With only the very cheapest, smallest lights — which hardly any of these households actually use — that would cost hundreds of dollars.
- Multiple Utahns with home displays told Axios that synchronized setups with RGB pixel lights run closer to 60 cents to $1 per light. Most start with what they can afford — I've seen first-year estimates ranging from $600 to nearly $5,000 — and then make the display more elaborate each year.
- Yard ornaments at full price typically run $50–$150 for 6-foot inflatables and $150-plus for the 14-footers. It's at least $300 for a decoration over 20 feet tall. And some yards have dozens, if not scores, of inflatables.
- 3- to 4-foot lighted plastic blow molds cost $50–$100 new.
Meanwhile, the electricity bill for a big display depends on the gear.
- Matthew Walsh, a Grantsville homeowner, told Axios his 8,000 LED pixels add about $20 to his electricity bill.
- Incandescent bulbs can cost up to $350 for an elaborate display, USA Today reported last year.
- Just a few moving spotlights — increasingly popular holiday features — cost an extra $168 for the month, said Matthew Eccles, whose Syracuse home is a popular Davis County showstopper.
Be smart: To make the show more affordable, Utah homeowners told us they bought secondhand equipment year-round, and on-sale decorations at 50–75% off from retailers shortly after Christmas.
- Some have switched to LED bulbs on their yard ornaments and solar lights to drive down energy costs.
The bottom line: It's an extravagance, but one that's nearly always undertaken in a spirit of generosity to make the neighborhood — any neighborhood — brighter during the year's darkest days.