Commercial Christmas Light Installation In Bourbonnais, IL: The Candy And Cake Shop Case Study

Most business owners want the same two things out of holiday lighting. They want the building to get noticed in November and December, and they want somebody else on the ladder. This case study walks through exactly how we handled a commercial holiday lighting job on a retail storefront in Bourbonnais, what the design decisions were, and what a business owner should expect when hiring a holiday lighting contractor.

Daytime view of the finished run. Pink and cool white C9 bulbs clipped along the full front parapet at the Candy And Cake Shop in Bourbonnais, IL.

THE PROJECT

The Job At A Glance

• Client: Candy And Cake Shop, a retail bakery and candy store in Bourbonnais, Illinois
• Building type: single story commercial storefront with a flat roof and a front parapet wall
• Product: commercial grade C9 LED bulbs on custom cut SPT-1 socket cord
• Colors: pink and cool white, alternated to pull the brand palette onto the roofline
• Coverage: full front parapet edge, corner to corner, so the outline is unbroken from the street
• Controls: automatic timer set to run from dusk, no switch for the staff to remember
• Service window: installed before the holiday shopping season, maintained through the season, removed and stored in January

THE GOAL

What The Shop Needed From A Commercial Christmas Light Company

A candy and cake shop lives on impulse traffic in November and December. People are already out running errands, already buying gifts, already looking for something to bring to a party. The building has to catch them while they are driving past.

The problem with a flat storefront is that it disappears at night. There is no roof pitch to outline, no peaks and gables to play with, and the sign is usually the only lit thing on the front. So the parapet becomes the canvas. Run a clean line of light along that top edge and the whole building comes forward.

The owner also did not want a project. She wanted lights that showed up, worked every night, and went away in January without her having to think about a single part of it. That is the actual value of a commercial decorating service. The lighting is the product, but the reason people buy is that they never touch it.

THE DESIGN

Why Pink And Cool White C9 Bulbs

The color choice was not decoration for its own sake. Pink is the shop's brand color, and it is rare on a December roofline. Every other building on the strip is running warm white or the standard multicolor set. A pink and cool white parapet stands out because it does not look like anyone else, and because it visually agrees with the sign, the awning, and the packaging inside.

Cool white was paired with the pink for two reasons. It keeps the pink from reading muddy at a distance, and it gives the line the crisp sugar and frosting look that fits a candy store. Warm white would have softened it into a generic holiday glow.

C9 bulbs are the right size for a commercial building. They are the large, classic, teardrop shaped bulbs, and they hold their shape visually from across a parking lot or from a car doing forty miles an hour. Smaller mini lights get lost on a big facade. We use LED C9s rather than incandescent because they draw a fraction of the power, they do not run hot on a membrane roof edge, and the color stays true for the whole season instead of fading.

THE INSTALL

How We Installed Lights On A Parapet

Parapet work is different from residential roofline work, and it is the part that trips up a lot of crews. Here is the sequence we ran on this building.

• Measure the run. We measure the actual linear feet of the parapet before anything is cut. That number drives the price and the material order, so nobody gets a surprise later.
• Cut the line to fit. Socket cord is cut to the exact length of the building and finished with vampire plugs. There is no bunched up leftover strand hanging off the corner, which is the fastest way to make a commercial building look cheap.
• Set the bulb pattern. Pink and cool white are alternated in a repeating pattern so the rhythm stays consistent from one end of the storefront to the other.
• Clip to the parapet cap. Bulbs are clipped so they face out toward the street and sit at a uniform height. No screws into the facade, no staples, no adhesive left behind on the building.
• Hide the power run. Cord is routed down a discreet line and tied off, then plugged into a timer at an existing exterior outlet.
• Test after dark. We check the display lit, at night, from the road, because that is the only view that matters.

All of the roof edge work is done off ladders and lifts with the customer's parking lot kept clear during business hours. On a retail building in season, staying out of the way of customers is part of the job.

WHAT YOU GET

What Our Commercial Holiday Lighting Service Includes

Every business Christmas light installation we do in Kankakee County and Will County is all inclusive. That means one price covers all of this:

• Design consultation and a layout built around your brand colors and your building
• Commercial grade LED bulbs and cord, custom cut to your roofline
• Professional installation by an insured crew
• Automatic timer so the display runs on schedule with no staff involvement
• Maintenance for the whole season, so a bulb or a cord issue gets fixed at no extra charge
• Takedown in January and storage of the materials until next season

Because we store the lights, year two is easier for the business. The material is already cut to your building, so the crew shows up and installs a display that was measured for you.

PRICING

What Commercial Christmas Light Installation Costs

For the 2026 season we price roofline and parapet work at $6 per linear foot, all inclusive. Our install packages start at $749. A single storefront like the Candy And Cake Shop lands near the lower end of the range. A strip center, a car dealership, or a building with multiple elevations and tree wraps runs higher because there is more to measure and more to maintain.

Measure the front edge of your building and multiply by six and you will be close before we ever pull up. We hold install dates with a deposit at signing, and the calendar fills from October forward, so the earlier a business books the more control it has over the install date.

THE CASE FOR IT

Why Businesses Hire A Holiday Lighting Contractor Instead Of Doing It In House

Almost every business owner has tried the other way first. Somebody's nephew gets on a ladder in a cold November wind with three boxes of store bought lights, and half of them are dead by the second week of December. The real costs of that are liability, a display that looks temporary, and a manager who spends December on a roof instead of running the business.

A commercial Christmas light company brings insured labor, commercial product that survives Illinois wind and ice, and a season long service commitment. If a section goes dark in the middle of the holiday rush, you call us and we fix it. That is the difference in what you are buying.

SERVICE AREA

Commercial Christmas Light Installers In Bourbonnais And Nearby

Green Pro Services is based at 407 S. Yates Ave in Kankakee and we install commercial holiday lighting throughout Kankakee County and Will County. That includes Bourbonnais, Bradley, Kankakee, Manteno, Frankfort, New Lenox, Mokena, Monee, and Crete. Retail, restaurants, offices, dealerships, churches, and property managers all book with us.

We also handle the exterior of these buildings the rest of the year. See our commercial cleaning services, our commercial power washing, and our full Christmas light installation page. If you are in Bourbonnais specifically, here is our Bourbonnais service page. You can also read our reviews on our Google Business Profile.

QUESTIONS

Commercial Holiday Lighting FAQ