Harrisburg, PA Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Three separate provisions of the Harrisburg zoning code touch holiday displays, and each one favors the display.

Section 7-325.13(A)(2) lists flashing, blinking, twinkling, animated or moving signs of any type among the signs prohibited in all zoning districts, with two exceptions: time and temperature signs, and signs that have a nonflashing electronically changing message. The sentence that follows says the restriction specifically includes window signs but does not prohibit holiday lighting or displays. A string of twinkling lights in a window is therefore not caught by the sign ban.

Section 7-325.7(A)(5) goes further. It lists holiday decorations among the signs exempt from the regulations of the sign chapter, alongside official signs, street signs, noncommercial signs and signs not visible from the public right-of-way.

The lighting chapter has its own carve-out. Section 7-331.9(F) prohibits flashing, flickering, and strobe lighting, except for nonadvertising seasonal holiday lights. The word nonadvertising matters: a seasonal light display that carries a commercial message does not fit the exception.

The sections read here print no start date, end date or take-down deadline for holiday lights or decorations. Harrisburg's only dated rules for seasonal signs are in § 7-325.8(A), which covers different signs: a sign advertising the seasonal sale of Christmas trees is limited to two signs per lot with a maximum sign area of 10 square feet and can be posted only when the trees are offered for sale, and a charitable event sign goes up no more than 30 days before the event and comes down no later than 10 days after.

Holiday lights still have to respect the rest of Chapter 7-331. Under § 7-331.9(C), any exterior light source cannot cause light spillover onto residential properties in excess of 0.5 horizontal footcandle at the property line, and subsection (D) bars hanging three or more bare incandescent bulbs of 40 watts or greater along a public street or an abutting property.