Christmas Light Installation in West Des Moines, Iowa

East: Valley Junction, 1893

The east side started life as Valley Junction, a town that grew around the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad depot and took its own name in 1893. What the railroad left behind is small houses on tight lots, close to the street and close to each other.

For lighting, that shape is friendly. Simple low rooflines, short runs, and a front elevation you can take in from the sidewalk. The catch is access. On tight lots there is not always room to stand a ladder where the run needs it, so Tate checks that on your house before install day.

Small does not mean bland, either. A tight street where every house is close together is the one place in this city where a lit roofline carries down the whole block.

West: Jordan Creek and Glen Oaks, 1991 onward

Glen Oaks was laid out across more than 500 acres starting in 1991 and opened in 1994 as the first gated residential community in central Iowa. Jordan Creek Town Center opened on August 4, 2004, and the neighborhoods around it filled in behind it.

Those are the two-story houses with several gables and a front peak well off the ground. Lighting one is a different day of work than lighting a cottage on the east side.

The city is still building at that end. West Des Moines issued 252 single-family permits in 2025 and 237 in 2024, and the average build value on the 2025 batch was more than half a million dollars.

Jingle in the Junction

Three blocks of 5th Street go up under more than 100,000 holiday lights, on Thursday evenings from about 5 to 8. There is a free horse-drawn trolley, live reindeer and ice carvings, and the tree gets lit with Santa down at the fire administration building at 318 5th Street. Check the current year's Thursdays with Historic Valley Junction. When we looked, two sources gave different dates for it.

No famous street, and that is fine

Look up the metro's best holiday lights and you get Beaverdale, Gingerbread Lane over in Ankeny, and Windsor Heights with its judged citywide contest. West Des Moines shows up through the shops on 5th Street, not through a residential block. There is no decorating tradition here to keep up with, which cuts both ways: nobody is competing with you, and nobody is doing it for you either. On most streets in this city, one well-lit roofline is the whole show.

A simple Valley Junction cottage

One story, one straight gutter run, and you like being outside in October. That is a job you can do. Where it stops being worth it is a tight lot with nowhere good to stand a ladder, and taking it all down in January when the ladder feet are on frozen ground.

A two-story with five gables

This is the opposite call. Out around Jordan Creek and Glen Oaks the front peak is a long way up and the roofline turns several times. This is where people either hire it out or light the garage and call it done.

You rent, or you are in a townhouse

Roughly four in ten households here rent. Tell us before we quote. Get the owner's yes in writing, and we will keep to whatever they agree to. Without it we do not hang anything.

How the clips work

Pro-grade clips made for gutters, shingles and fascia, attached without nails or screws wherever the roofline allows. Where a spot does not allow it, Tate agrees the method with you before he starts.