Curtis Park Christmas Light Installation

The Bee’s 2025 holiday guide pointed people to 3063 Donner Way, where one house ran about 20,000 lights and a yard of handmade figures from 5 to 10 every night. You don’t need to match that. It does set a tone for the neighborhood, though, doesn’t it? Curtis Park Christmas light installation, as we see it, is for folks who’d like a handsome house and a free weekend.

They call this the Neighborhood of Trees, and the towering elms and palms lining the streets are the reason. So that’s where we begin. A palm is about the best trunk there is for a tree wrap: straight, even and visible from a block away. We spiral the lights up as high as we can safely reach and keep the turns steady so the whole thing looks deliberate. Elms get the trunk and the first heavy limbs. Either way, no nail or staple touches the tree, the wrap hugs without squeezing, and off it comes in January.

One favor: when you phone (916) 313-4551, tell us which trees stand in your yard, which are in the planting strip, and where the nearest outdoor outlet is. Cord planning starts there.

The houses are Victorians, bungalows, Tudors and 1920s revival styles, with a good many built in the 1930s and 1940s. Each one wants something different.

• Tudors have steep front gables. We trace the gable so the peak shows, working off ladders with clips on the roof edge.
• Bungalows sit low and wide behind a big front porch. The porch roofline is usually the star, and the main roof behind it becomes a second layer.
• Victorians are tall, with trim worth protecting. Often the porch, one gable and a wreath up high do more than chasing every edge.

On all three, roofline lights ride on clips. Old trim and old paint go untouched.

Bungalow porches were made for this. Pillar wraps go on the porch columns, lit garland follows the rail and the beam overhead, and a lit wreath lands on the door. Stake lighting down the front walk ties the porch to the sidewalk, and we set stakes around sprinkler heads and tree roots, not through them. People walking to the park, the Sierra 2 Center or Bret Harte Elementary go right past your steps, so the close-up touches get appreciated.

Curtis Park has no HOA. The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association, the group that runs the Sierra 2 Center, is voluntary. Nobody issues a start day. Light up the weekend the elms finish dropping, or sooner.

We’re around the blocks between Broadway and Sutterville Road all season, and across Freeport Boulevard in Land Park as well. There’s more about trees on our tree Christmas lights page and more about the city on our Sacramento page.

Getting a quote takes one phone conversation at (916) 313-4551. If you’d sooner send pictures, text or email two or three shots from across the street, or use the contact page. Every light is ours, and so is the timer that runs them. Lights acting up in December? (916) 313-4551 again.

When January rolls around the same crew unclips the display and takes it away with them, and your closet shelves stay free. The palms go back to being palms.

Can you wrap the tall palm in my front yard?

Yes. Palms wrap very well because the trunk is straight. We go as high as we can safely reach off a ladder and unwind it all in January.

Does the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association have a say over Christmas lights?

No. That group is voluntary and isn’t an HOA, and Curtis Park has no HOA window for holiday lights. You pick the day.

My Tudor has a very steep front gable. Is that a problem?

No. Steep gables are common here. We outline them off ladders using roof-edge clips, and we’ll say so on the phone if any peak is beyond safe reach.

I live near C.K. McClatchy High School on Freeport Boulevard. What shows best from a car?

From a moving car, big simple shapes win: a full roofline and a wrapped trunk. Fine porch detail suits streets where people walk.