Franklin Township, PA Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Section 27-2015, Special Purpose Signs, closes with Subsection 5, Holiday Decorations, which gives residents and businesses a display window rather than a size or location limit: special holiday decorations are allowed up beginning six weeks before the holiday they mark and must come down within two weeks after it passes. The rule sits in the same section as the Township's standards for theater marquees, menu boards and directional signs, and it draws a sharp line between pure decoration and advertising. 5 reclassifies it as a sign rather than a decoration, which means it no longer gets the six-week-before, two-week-after display window and instead must conform to the Township's general sign standards in § 27-2001 and the size, illumination and permit rules that apply to whatever category of sign it becomes, such as a temporary sign under § 27-2004 capped at 24 square feet or a freestanding sign requiring a building permit under § 27-2005.

A purely decorative display, string lights, an inflatable snowman with no branding, or a wreath, faces no square-footage cap under this section, only the eight-week outside limit on how long it can remain up.