A homeowner in Glen Ellyn asked us this last October and then answered it himself before we could: "No point — nobody sees the back." Then he mentioned his kitchen table faces the yard, his family eats dinner there every night in December, and the view out that window is a dark fence.
Should you light the back of your house? The honest answer across the Chicago suburbs is: usually not the whole back, and almost always something. The mistake is treating it as a curb-appeal question when it's really a question about who the display is for.
Front lighting is for the street. Back lighting is for you.
That's the entire distinction, and it reframes the budget conversation.
A traced front roofline is a public gesture. It works on neighbors, on people driving past, on the general impression the house makes from the road. It's also, in the Chicago suburbs, largely seen at 25 mph through a car window.
Back lighting is private. It's seen from the kitchen table, the family room, the primary bedroom — for hours, every evening, at close range, by the people who actually live there. Different audience, different economics.
Once you separate those, the question stops being "is the back worth lighting?" and becomes "which interior views are worth improving?"
When the back is genuinely worth it
Your main living space faces the yard. Open-plan homes across Naperville, Wheaton and the newer Plainfield subdivisions frequently put the kitchen and family room across the rear elevation with a wall of glass. In December that glass is black from 4:30 onward. A couple of wrapped trees turns it from a void into a view.
You have a specimen tree behind the house. A single mature oak or maple wrapped trunk-to-limb, viewed from inside, is one of the highest-return elements in holiday lighting. It's also the cheapest way to transform the rear view — one tree, not a roofline.
You entertain outdoors in December. Fire pits, covered patios and outdoor kitchens have become standard on newer Chicagoland builds, and they get used well into the season. Lit space is usable space.
You have kids. This is the one people are shy about admitting. A lit backyard in December is genuinely magical from inside a warm house, and the audience that matters most is already there.
A pool or water feature. Water doubles light. A lit rear landscape reflected in a pool cover or a small pond reads far stronger than the same lighting on dry ground.
When it's wasted budget
Nothing important faces the rear. If your kitchen looks out the side and the back rooms are bedrooms with the blinds down, you're lighting for no one.
You want a traced rear roofline "for symmetry." This is the most common way money gets wasted here. A rear roofline is rarely visible from anywhere except your own yard, and a roofline run seen from directly below reads as a bright line, not architecture. If you're spending on the back, spend it on trees, beds and the patio — not the gutter.
Your rear is fully screened by fence and mature trees. Then it's purely an interior-view decision, which is fine — but be clear that's what you're buying.
You'd be cutting the front to fund it. The front does the public work, including anything to do with resale impression or a real estate listing. Don't trade a complete front display for a partial back one.
If you're not sure which category your house falls into, a custom holiday lighting design plan sorts it — and you can request a free holiday lighting quote with the rear elevation priced as a separate line so you can see exactly what it costs before deciding.
The cheap version that works
For most Chicago suburbs homes where the back matters, the highest-value package is small and specific:
- One or two wrapped trees, positioned in the sightline from your main interior window
- Lit evergreens or bed line along the base of the rear elevation, so the bottom of the view isn't dark
- Patio or deck perimeter, if you use it
- Nothing on the rear roofline
That's typically a fraction of a front-elevation display and delivers essentially all of the interior-view benefit. It's the version we recommend most often.
The practical constraints people forget
Power. Rear outlets are frequently scarce and often on the same circuit as the front. A full-property display needs the load mapped across circuits, which is a planning question before it's an installation question.
Snow removal. Anything staked in a path you shovel is going to get hit. Bed lighting and tree wrapping survive winter fine; low path fixtures across a shoveled route do not.
Dogs. A lit rear yard is a dog's yard. Cords need routing along bed lines and fence bases, not across open grass where they get chewed or snagged.
Neighbors behind you. On the tighter lots common in Elmhurst or Downers Grove, rear lighting aimed high can wash a neighbor's second-floor window. Aim matters more than quantity — this is the one genuine courtesy issue with back lighting.
Frequently asked questions
Is backyard holiday lighting worth the money?
It is when your main living space faces the rear, when you have a mature tree in that sightline, or when you use outdoor space in December. It usually isn't if the back rooms are bedrooms with blinds drawn — the value is entirely about which interior views it improves.
Should I light the back roofline for symmetry?
Generally no. A rear roofline is rarely seen from anywhere but your own yard, and viewed from directly below it reads as a bright line rather than architecture. Trees, bed lines and the patio give far more return on the same spend.
What's the cheapest back-of-house lighting that actually makes a difference?
One or two wrapped trees placed in the sightline from your main window, plus a lit evergreen or bed line at the base of the rear elevation. That combination captures most of the benefit for a fraction of a full front display.
Will backyard lights bother my neighbors?
Only if they're aimed badly. On tighter Chicago suburbs lots, uplighting that washes a neighbor's second-floor window is the real issue — aim and fixture placement matter far more than how many lights you run.
Light the view you actually look at
The best version of this decision is unglamorous: keep the front complete for the street, then spend a modest amount on the two or three elements that fix the view from the room you sit in every night.
Twinkle Bros designs both elevations as one plan across the Chicago suburbs, prices the rear as its own line so you can see the trade clearly, and supplies all the commercial-grade LED — installed, maintained through the season at no charge, then removed and stored at our facility in January. Nothing ends up in your garage.
October dates fill first. Call (708) 316-4569 or request a free holiday lighting quote — and stop looking at a black window in December.