Islip, NY Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Article LII of the Zoning chapter, the Town's exterior-lighting standards, defines HOLIDAY LIGHTING at § 68-683 as 'temporary lights used to celebrate holidays,' including strings of small individual lights, illuminated menorahs, illuminated nativity scenes, illuminated candles and various seasonal yard decorations. Section 68-684, Applicability; nonconforming lighting; exceptions, sets the general rule that all exterior lighting installed, replaced, altered or repaired after the article's effective date must conform to the chapter's shielding, cutoff and footcandle limits (Subsection A). Subsection B(4) allows the Town to order nonessential lighting extinguished, including mobile or ground-mounted searchlights, laser light shows, and decorative flashing or tracing lights, but expressly carves out 'exempt holiday lighting' from that enforcement power.

The operative carve-out is Subsection C(3): 'Holiday exterior lighting lit between October 15 and January 15 of the following year' is listed among the article's enumerated exceptions, alongside low-wattage residential fixtures, emergency-vehicle lights and sensor-activated luminaires. In practice this means a homeowner or business can run seasonal string lights, illuminated inflatables, menorahs and nativity displays through that eleven-week window without triggering the article's full-cutoff, fully-shielded or maximum-lumen requirements that otherwise govern every other category of exterior lighting in Islip. Once January 15 passes, decorative lighting left up and operating reverts to being ordinary nonconforming lighting subject to the Town's general glare, light-trespass and shielding rules under §§ 68-685 through 68-688, and can be ordered changed or removed if it contributes to disabling glare on a public roadway.