A year of holiday colors for permanent lights
One calendar for the whole year: which colors to program for each holiday, which effect suits it, and the dates to put on the schedule from this fall through next summer.
How to use this calendar
The best holiday color ideas for permanent lights are simple ones: two colors per holiday, one effect, and a window of a few nights on the schedule. On permanent lights nothing goes up or comes down between holidays. Every look below comes out of the same RGBW fixture on your fascia, so a new holiday costs you a few minutes on the phone and nothing else.
Here is the year at a glance, starting with the holidays coming up after this fall's install season. Sunset times are for Detroit, from the U.S. Naval Observatory, because they tell you how long each look actually gets to shine before your off time.
| Holiday | Next date | Colors | Suggested effect | Detroit sunset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Thu, Nov 26, 2026 | Amber, deep gold, warm white | Steady | 5:03 pm |
| Hanukkah | Sundown Fri, Dec 4 to Sat, Dec 12, 2026 | Blue and white | Steady or slow fade | 5:00 pm on Dec 4 |
| New Year's | Thu, Dec 31, 2026 and Fri, Jan 1, 2027 | Gold and cool white | Slow fade, later off time on the Eve | 5:10 pm on Jan 1 |
| Valentine's Day | Sun, Feb 14, 2027 | Red and soft pink | Slow fade | 6:03 pm |
| St. Patrick's Day | Wed, Mar 17, 2027 | Kelly green and white | Steady | 7:41 pm |
| Easter | Sun, Mar 28, 2027 | Pastel pink, lavender, pale yellow, mint | Slow fade | 7:53 pm |
| Mother's Day | Sun, May 9, 2027 | Pink and lavender | Steady | 8:40 pm |
| Father's Day | Sun, Jun 20, 2027 | Blue and white, or his team | Steady | 9:12 pm |
The effects named here are looks you can preview on your own house in the LightCast tool. At the estimate, have us show you which effects the controller itself runs.
Some of these dates move every year. Easter follows the moon, Hanukkah follows the Hebrew calendar, and federal law fixes Mother's Day as the second Sunday in May and Father's Day as the third Sunday in June. Treat everything below as a starting point, not a rule.
Winter: New Year's and Valentine's Day
New Year's. Gold and cool white reads as a celebration without looking like the Christmas display was left on by accident. Keep it to two nights: switch over on December 31, run a slow fade between the two colors, and push the off time past midnight for the Eve. On January 2, everything goes back to your everyday warm white. The week between Christmas and New Year's has its own plan, linked in the Christmas section below.
January evenings are still long. With the sun down by 5:10 pm on New Year's Day, a dusk start gives you a long evening, and a fresh layer of snow on the porch roof or the garage roof picks up whatever color is above it. Gold on snow looks warmer than it does on bare shingles, so you may want the brightness a step lower than you would pick in November.
Valentine's Day. Red and pink, fading slowly between the two. Pure red at full output can look harsh on a white or light gray house, while pink is red softened with white, and that softening is where an RGBW fixture earns its keep. February 14, 2027 falls on a Sunday, so a Friday through Sunday window covers the weekend dinners and the day itself.
Spring: St. Patrick's, Easter and Mother's Day
St. Patrick's Day. Green is the whole idea. A single kelly green on every zone is bold and clean, and alternating green and white keeps a two-story front from reading as one flat stripe. Keep it steady on weeknights and save a chase for the party. March 17, 2027 is a Wednesday, so starting the Friday before gives you the weekend plus the day.
Easter. Easter comes early in 2027, on March 28, and a late-March evening in Michigan can still mean snow on the lawn. Pastels suit it either way: pale pink, lavender, soft yellow and mint, run on a slow fade at low brightness. Pastels come from mixing the white diode into each color, and they read softest at low brightness, so this is one holiday where turning it down improves the look instead of just dimming it.
Mother's Day. Pink and lavender are the safe choice, but the better one is her favorite color, whatever it is. That is the point of full color from one fixture. The catch is the calendar. On May 9, 2027 the sun sets at 8:40 pm in Detroit, so a 10 pm off time gives the roofline barely an hour of real darkness. Push the off time later for the weekend, or accept that this one is a short, pretty show.
Summer: Father's Day and the flag holidays
Father's Day. Blue and white works on almost any house, but most dads would rather see their team. Honolulu blue and silver, or whatever colors he actually cheers for, turns a quiet Sunday into something he notices when he pulls in. June 20, 2027 is one of the longest days of the year, with sunset at 9:12 pm and civil twilight lasting until 9:47 pm, so run a later off time or the lights barely register.
The flag holidays all share one palette, red, white and blue, and one rule: keep it steady and dignified rather than flashy. Our post on red, white and blue roofline lights has more ideas that work for all three.
- Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2027: steady red, white and blue for the weekend, nothing moving.
- Flag Day, Monday, June 14, 2027: the same look for a single night, an easy one to set and forget.
- Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2026: steady red, white and blue, or all white, between Halloween and Thanksgiving.
The Fourth itself lands on Sunday, July 4, 2027, and it is the one flag holiday where a chase or twinkle fits the mood.
Autumn: Diwali and Thanksgiving
Autumn is the busiest stretch of the calendar. Diwali, which falls on Sunday, November 8, 2026, gets its colors and timing in our guide to Diwali lights on your house.
Thanksgiving. Amber, deep gold and warm white, steady, at a moderate brightness. Think candlelight and harvest rather than a light show. This is also the palette that looks best against brick and natural stone, two things plenty of Macomb and Oakland County homes have on the front elevation. With sunset at 5:03 pm on November 26, 2026, the house is lit by the time the first guests arrive.
Thanksgiving is the handoff holiday too. A typical Troy colonial carries 120 to 180 feet of lit roofline across the front. On a house like that you can keep the front gables amber through Thursday and switch everything to Christmas colors on Friday. No ladder and no bins, just a change on the phone.
December: Hanukkah and Christmas
Hanukkah. Blue and white, steady or on a slow fade between the two. In 2026 the first candle is lit at sundown on Friday, December 4, and the holiday ends at nightfall on Saturday, December 12. A dusk-based schedule lines up with that nicely: the roofline comes on around the same time the candles do, every night for eight nights.
In 2027 the timing is different. Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday, December 24, and runs through New Year's Day, so it shares the whole of Christmas week. Homes that mark both holidays can split the house by zone, with blue and white on the front gables and warm white or red and green on the garage. Plan that split before the install, while the zones can still be laid out around it.
Christmas. The one holiday nobody needs convincing on. The real choice is between all warm white, red and green, or a pattern such as candy cane or a multicolor string look. Patterns, spacing and a night-by-night plan from Christmas Eve to New Year's are in Christmas color patterns for permanent lights.
Putting each holiday on the schedule
A calendar only helps if the lights follow it without you standing in the driveway every night. On a LightCast system you control colors, zones, brightness, schedules and effects from your phone, and that is enough to run this whole year.
Two things in this calendar change from holiday to holiday. The first is the window: one night for Flag Day, the Eve and the day for New Year's, a Friday to Sunday stretch for Valentine's Day, eight nights for Hanukkah. The second is the off time. Read it against the sunset column in the table, because a 9:12 pm June sunset needs a much later off time than a 5:00 pm December one if the look is going to get any real darkness. The full routine is in our guide to schedules and zones on smart roofline lights, along with the controller questions worth asking at the estimate.
Pick the handful of holidays you actually care about rather than all of them. Each one you add is another change to make and another change back.
Every color in this calendar comes from one fixture, installed once, at $22–34 per lit foot of roofline. To see what that means for your house, measure your roofline from a single photo and LightCast prices permanent and seasonal side by side. The photo is processed in your browser; it is never uploaded. After that, request an estimate with the holidays you care about, and we will plan zones around them and confirm within 24 hours.
Questions about this
Do I have to reprogram the colors for every holiday?
You set each holiday's colors, zones, brightness and effect from your phone when its window comes up, then switch back to your everyday look afterward. Whether a look can be saved and recalled the following year depends on the controller setup, so ask about it at the estimate.
Can one side of the house show holiday colors while the rest stays white?
Yes, if that side is its own zone. Each zone can run its own color, so the front gables can go green for St. Patrick's Day while the garage stays warm white. Decide the zone split before installation, because it is set by how the runs are laid out.
Which holiday colors look best on a red brick house?
Warm palettes sit best against red brick: amber, gold and warm white for Thanksgiving, gold for New Year's, and warm white for Christmas. Cool blues and pastels still work, but keep the brightness lower so they do not look harsh against the brick.
Sources
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal holidays (2026 and 2027) opm.gov
- Hebcal, Chanukah dates hebcal.com
- Farmers' Almanac, When is Easter farmersalmanac.com
- Farmers' Almanac, When is Diwali farmersalmanac.com
- 36 U.S. Code § 117, Mother's Day law.cornell.edu
- 36 U.S. Code § 109, Father's Day law.cornell.edu
- 36 U.S. Code § 110, Flag Day law.cornell.edu
- U.S. Naval Observatory, Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day (Detroit) aa.usno.navy.mil