Valencia County, NM Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Valencia County Code § 92.22(B) lists six categories of lighting exempt from the provisions of this chapter, the lighting nuisance section that otherwise requires outdoor fixtures to be shielded, non-hazardous to traffic, and non-blinking above 8 feet. The fourth exemption, § 92.22(B)(4), is 'Holiday displays. Temporary holiday lights or lighting displays,' a two-word category with no listed wattage cap, color restriction, or calendar window in the printed code. Because the exemption is keyed to the display being 'temporary,' a holiday display that stays up as permanent, year-round lighting risks falling outside the exemption and back under the general shielding and traffic-hazard rules in § 92.22(A).

The other exemptions sitting alongside holiday displays are emergency lighting, warning-device lights for fire, law enforcement and ambulance use, public works lighting for highways, roads and irrigation canal work, lighting required by other local, state or federal law (including the New Mexico Night Sky Protection Act, NMSA §§ 74-12-1 et seq.), and lighting for county-authorized recreational activities. The section does not separately define 'temporary,' so the county's Code Enforcement office would evaluate a complaint about a holiday display left up for months against that ordinary meaning rather than a numeric deadline printed in the ordinance.

No permit or registration is mentioned for holiday displays anywhere in Chapter 92, so a seasonal light display in the unincorporated county needs no county sign-off before going up.