Virginia Postrel has some thoughts on the increasing number and complexity of Christmas light displays. Some people are hiring professionals to do the job:

Christmas Décor, based in Lubbock, Texas, has more than 350 franchise locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company estimates that its franchisees do more than $32 million in holiday light business a year. (At least four other national companies offer similar franchises.) Most franchisees are landscaping companies looking for ways to keep working through the slow winter months. Like the inventory controls that have improved efficiency in manufacturing, adding a holiday lighting service allows landscapers to avoid the boom and bust of hiring and laying off employees

M_, who is my personal Christmas expert, favours smaller displays that emphasize trees, bushes and other landscape elements. But she doesn't like too many lights, dismissing them as overdone. And she'd never subcontract - but the growth of specializations in our economy may be as significant as the specializations that more or less created the middle class.