First cold night of fall. You’re in the garage, staring at a tub of lights you shoved in there last January. One strand is knotted into a ball. The clips never liked your stucco anyway. That’s a Saturday gone, and you haven’t hit the roofline yet.
Permanent lights skip all of that, and they’re good for a lot more than Christmas. I’ve put them on plenty of Albuquerque houses, and the holidays are just the start.
Christmas and New Year’s
Of all the holidays, Christmas is what gets people to call. Oelo Lights give you warm white along the roofline for the classic look, or red and green with a slow chase if you want some motion. Set a timer in the app and forget it until January.
One caveat: if hanging lights with the kids is your ritual, keep doing it. This is for the people who dread it.
Christmas Eve is its own thing here. Plenty of Albuquerque families line their walls with luminarias, and a couple I worked with in Corrales didn’t want the roofline competing with them. We dropped their system to a low amber, about candle color. The next morning they went back to red and green. Took about ten seconds.
October Through Thanksgiving
Holidays pile up fast in the fall, and that’s where a permanent system starts paying for itself. Orange and purple for Halloween. Straight red if you’re running a haunted garage for the neighborhood kids. You could even go full rainbow during Balloon Fiesta week, which isn’t on any calendar but might as well be.
Match whatever’s already out front, though. Pumpkins plus a purple roofline can look like a party store.
By Thanksgiving I’d ease back to warm white or soft amber. It sits fine next to a chile ristra on the porch.
Skip the fast-flashing patterns if you’re on a busy road like Coors. They look fun from the driveway and frantic from the street.
February Through July
February’s easy. A slow fade between pink and red says Valentine’s Day without a single paper heart taped to a window. St. Patrick’s Day is all green. Nobody digs through a bin. Easter weekend gets soft pastels if that’s your thing.
Summer holidays mostly mean the Fourth. Red, white, and blue across the front, done before the cookout starts.
The best use might be the nights nobody’s celebrating anything. A Rio Rancho family I know ran cherry and silver most of Lobos season, then switched to school colors for a graduation party. Birthdays get a favorite color.
What Install Day Looks Like on Stucco
Most of the houses I see around Albuquerque are flat-roof stucco with a parapet, so there’s no gutter edge to clip anything to. That’s where permanent decorative lighting installation earns its money.
We start by walking the roofline with you and marking where the channel runs. Then it gets mounted under the lip or along the fascia, and the channel can be painted to match your tan stucco so it nearly disappears in daylight. A front roofline is usually a day’s work.
Here’s the part to leave to a pro. Drill stucco wrong and water gets in behind it, and that repair costs more than the lights did. It won’t suit every house, either. If your stucco’s cracked or sounds hollow, I want to look at that first.
Get on the Schedule Before November
Wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving and you’re fighting every other homeowner who’s had it with ladders for a slot. DIY it on stucco and you might be patching a corner by January. Red Shovel Landscaping has hung lights around Albuquerque for over 14 years, and we can have yours running before the holidays get going. Call (505) 243-2277.
Quick Questions
Can I do other holidays or just christmas
Any of the holidays, plus game days and birthdays. The app saves each look as a preset. Next October it’s one tap instead of a Saturday.
Do they look weird in the daytime
Mostly no. The channel sits tight under the roof edge and can be painted to match your stucco or trim. Up close you’ll spot it. From the street, most neighbors won’t.
Will monsoon storms mess them up
The LEDs are rated IP68, so they’re built to handle being submerged. A July monsoon downpour isn’t a problem. Oelo rates them at 100,000 hours, which works out to decades of nightly use.
How much of the house do I have to do
As little as the front roofline. The system’s modular, so plenty of people start small and add the back patio later. One control unit powers up to 600 lights, so there’s room to grow.
Is switching colors a pain
If you can order a pizza on your phone, you can do this. You pick the color and pattern in the app. A built-in timer handles on and off.
That’s about it. Start with the holidays you hate decorating for, and leave the ladder in the garage.
