Fort Myers Florida Weekly
Holiday lights used to be something people put up around Thanksgiving and took down after New Year's Day.
But today's outdoor lighting options mean that homeowners and businesses can have year-round lighting that changes color for different holidays or even themed to game day sports parties.
"There are themes for Halloween, Fourth of July, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and more," said Zach Steele, a partner in his family's Fort Myers-based Lanai Lights company.
The business installs Trimlight permanent holiday lighting, which are 8-foot strings of LED lights nestled in a channel that is color-matched to the house or lanai color. The lights are controlled through an app and have 25 animations, such as "chasing" each other around the house, twinkling and "fireworks." Major holidays are preprogrammed, and the colors can sync with music.
"It's a very detailed and cool system," Steele said of the lights that are typically installed around pool cages. "Every night, you can change your colors or patterns. It's a fun experience."
For people looking for additional options, Steele and his family also operate Glow Bros Florida, which is dedicated to seasonal, temporary holiday lights.
"People get tired of putting up and taking down lights every year, dealing with tangled strings and getting on the roof," Steele said. Changing holiday lights each year also gives homeowners the opportunity to change the color scheme, he noted.
Another family-owned business started initially as a hobby. Peter O'Flinn said he loves Christmas and thought doing holiday lighting décor would be fun.
"I didn't envision what the company would turn into," said O'Flinn, who owns Light Up Naples Holiday & Outdoor Lighting with his wife, Katie. "It pays my mortgage and other bills now and I work on it 12 months a year, not just seasonally. "
The company does exterior lighting on buildings and trees, lit shapes such as a 16-foot reindeer and large gift boxes, and pre-decorated Christmas trees for interiors.
Light Up Naples also has lights they can program for different holidays, such as green, purple and orange for Halloween and also red, white and blue for Fourth of July.
Light Up Naples works with a lot of homeowners associations, and O'Flinn said most of those contracts are signed in April. Residential homeowners tend to renew in January, with 90 percent returning, according to O'Flinn.
"Once folks know they like working with us, they want to reserve their prime date early," he said.
To help with the full schedule, the company wraps lights around HOA trees in September, though they don't get lit until later in the season. They use a low-voltage light that can stay out in harsh Florida weather, including pouring rain.
Fekel Altimeaux wasn't in the holiday spirit when he discovered the lighting business. He was working unhappily in insurance claims, his car had broken and he was feeling down. He read an that promised an income of $100,000 a year hanging Christmas lights. Doubting the claim but thinking it would give him some extra income, Altimeaux started SWFL Lights in 2021 and made $3,400 from his first customer. The Port Charlotte based business – recently rebranded as Gulf Coast Holidays – made $100,000 in its third year. Altimeaux is now focusing on commercial clients such as HOAs and car dealerships because each of those single jobs pays more than several individual residential projects combined.
"The crazy part of it," Altimeaux said, "is I didn't become a Christmas nut until I started hanging lights. Now I start singing 'Here Comes Santa Claus' in September."
Altimeaux said he likes the joy on people's faces when the lights turn on and the stories they tell him. "Some clients burst into tears," he shared. "They get overly emotional. You don't know what Christmas means until you turn the lights on and they say they grew up in a Christmas family and haven't been able to return or they lost a child who loved Christmas. Helping them makes me feel good inside."
If customers are flexible, Gulf Coast Holidays will install 24/7. Altimeaux said businesses such as restaurants and shopping centers or homeowners who are away allow his crew to work through the night, because it's less disruptive.
"With such tight deadlines, putting up holiday lighting is a game of strategy, planning and time management," Altimeaux said.
Altimeaux said businesses like holiday lighting because it increases foot traffic. "Gen Z has a need for vibes and photo ops that goes hand-in-hand with holiday lights and décor," he said. His designs include light-up wreaths, tree towers, reindeer and other themes. One homeowner asked Altimeaux to light up the basketball rims at his house. "Every time they dunked the ball, the rims lit up," Altimeaux said.
Lighting has moved away from incandescent bulbs to LED and has added intelligent lights, which Altimeaux said allows people to create custom light shows with a wide variety of color and actions. "The possibilities have really expanded."
Like Altimeaux, retired firefighter John Noll was looking for extra income when he left his job in 2010. His firm, Lighting by Design in West Palm Beach, now does $2.3 million gross annual sales. He attributes part of his success to the safety of having a professional install outdoor lighting.
"As we get up in age, we're not quite as agile as we used to be," Noll says. "Climbing ladders can be dangerous. We have eight bucket trucks with people harnessed in."
Noll's most popular service is palm trees with white lights along the trunk and green lights along the fronds, often with a gold collar below the fronds. "It's a natural look that doesn't say 'Christmas' but is lit for the holiday season," he said.
Firms like his also make sure lights are custom fit, spaced properly and use commercial-grade lights that stay on, he explained.
A current trend is a pure white like a sheet of paper, he said. "It has a little more pizazz than soft warm white."
Many holiday décor companies find it challenging to stay busy all year. In response to customer demand, Light Up Naples added landscape lighting services that keeps two employees busy throughout the year.
Noll at Lighting by Design has employees who work year-round in his warehouse, spending the spring and summer testing thousands of light sets to make sure they are working properly and that all lights on a string have the same color temperature.
Altimeaux considers Gulf Coast Holidays a seasonal business and still works full-time in commercial business development for a restoration company. He keeps his lighting staff busy year-round installing permanent lights on roof lines and on palm trees.
"I found a lighting solution that grows with the trees," he said.
Owners of lighting companies can almost feel like they are delivering a holiday present with what they do.
"It's a great feeling," Noll said. "I tell my employees that they're not putting up lights, they're bringing joy to people and helping them create memories."
O'Flinn of Light Up Naples said, "We sell a service, but it's really the emotions and smiles when people pull up to their home and it's illuminated along the roof, every palm tree is lit, and there are wreaths and bows. How can you not be joyful? It puts people in a good mood. It makes me feel like a kid again." ¦
In the KNOW
For more info about each lighting company, see their websites below.
· Glow Bros: glowbrosflorida.com
· Gulf Coast Holidays: gcholidaysfl.com
· Lanai Lights: lanailights.com
· Light Up Naples Holiday & Outdoor Lighting: lightupnaples.com
