Serrano Christmas Light Installation

Serrano is one of the few places in El Dorado Hills where the holiday decoration rule is written down in plain numbers. The Serrano El Dorado Owners’ Association lets decorations go up six weeks before a holiday and stay until two weeks after, with no application needed. For Christmas that works out to roughly the middle of November through the end of the first week of January. We plan every Serrano Christmas light installation inside those dates, and your removal day goes on our calendar before the first clip goes on.

The rule sits in the association’s Policies, Rules and Resolutions under Holiday Decorations. Three parts of it shape a lighting job.

• The dates. Up to six weeks ahead of the holiday, down inside the two weeks that follow it. A temporary display needs no prior approval.
• Front yards the association maintains. In several villages the landscape crew keeps the front yard, and decorations can’t get in their way. We keep stakes and cords off the mow lines and out of the beds they work.
• Trees. Serrano prohibits attaching things to trees, with a carve-out for holiday decor that hangs loosely and comes down after the season. Our trunk wraps are tied by hand. Nothing gets screwed in, stapled or cinched into bark.

Boards revise rules, and anything outside the standard dates needs the Architectural Control Committee. Get the current copy from the association office at 4525 Serrano Parkway before you plan something unusual. Then call (530) 457-4771.

Serrano covers about 3,500 acres of hill country, and plenty of homes sit above the street on a slope. That changes the job. A roofline that looks modest from your own driveway can be the tallest thing on the block from downhill, so we light the edges that face the road first: the front gables, the peak over the entry, the eave along the view side. Homes on the Serrano Country Club course get seen from two directions, street and fairway.

Roofs vary by village and by builder, so we ask for photos before we say how we’d attach anything. On tile, clips tuck under the tile’s edge and we work from ladders so boots aren’t crossing the tiles. On gutters and fascia, clips grip the edge. No holes in stucco or trim.

On the custom side, the villages sit behind guarded gates. Add our crew to the gatehouse list twice, hanging day and stripping day, and the truck rolls through without a string of phone calls.

Our crew also lights homes across El Dorado Hills, including Blackstone off Latrobe Road and The Promontory on the west side.

Tree wraps. The developer planted tens of thousands of trees and left the centuries-old oaks standing among them. A wrapped oak trunk on a hillside shows from a long way off. Younger street trees get a lighter wrap, trunk first, then the lowest branches. More on that on our tree wrapping page.

Pillar and column wraps. Even spirals on the entry columns and porch posts, cord run down the back where you can’t see it.

Stake lighting. On a long or curving driveway, stakes draw the line from the street up to the garage. We set them away from the irrigation and out of the landscape crew’s path.

Lit wreaths and lit garland. A wreath up on the high gable or over the garage, garland framing the entry or trailing a balcony rail.

We supply every strand. Timers kill the display late in the evening. A dead section? Phone (530) 457-4771 and we’ll book the repair.

Nobody needs to drive up to your house for a quote. We do it on a call, or you text or email a few pictures, or send them through our contact form: one square-on from the street, plus one off each front corner. Serrano has 17 miles of trails, so if your back elevation faces a path or has Folsom Lake views, send that side as well.

Every Serrano Christmas light installation ends the same way. In January we return, pull every clip and strand, and haul it all away. That visit is scheduled to land inside the two weeks the rule allows.

The early weeks fill first. Six weeks before Christmas comes sooner than it sounds, so call (530) 457-4771 while there are still days to choose from.

How many weeks before Christmas does Serrano let decorations go up?

The association’s Holiday Decorations rule allows them up to six weeks before the holiday and wants them down within two weeks after. For Christmas that is about mid-November to the end of the first week of January. Confirm against the current rules, since boards update them.

Do I need Architectural Control Committee approval for holiday lights in Serrano?

Not for a temporary display inside the standard dates. The rule says a variance from it needs the committee’s approval.

Can you wrap the oak in my front yard?

Yes, as a temporary holiday wrap. Serrano’s tree attachment rule exempts holiday decorations loosely hung in or from trees, and that is how we tie ours.

The association maintains my front yard. Does that limit my display?

It limits what sits on the ground. Decorations can’t obstruct the landscape crew, so we lean on the roofline, columns, wreaths and garland and keep stakes out of maintained turf.

What do we do about the guarded Serrano gate on install day?

Put us on your gatehouse list for the install date and again for the January removal date. We give you both ahead of time.