After a year marked by shifting regulations, major infrastructure investments and continued demand across multiple sectors, the construction industry found time to pause and celebrate the season. As the holidays approached, contractors across the country traded hard hats for holiday décor, transforming jobsites and equipment yards into festive displays.
Construction Dive’s 2025 Holiday Lights Contest highlights submissions from builders who leaned into the spirit of the season, blending creativity with the tools of their trade. Cranes, wheel loaders and skid steers became unlikely centerpieces in displays that brought cheer to crews and surrounding communities alike.
Lebanon, Ohio-based SiteWORX reimagined Santa’s iconic sleigh using heavy equipment. The company’s display featured a CAT 938 wheel loader serving as Santa’s sleigh, guided by CAT 255 skid steers outfitted as reindeer. An inflatable Santa completed the scene, waving nearby as the equipment rolled into holiday mode.
Each machine was decorated with antlers and lights, with the lead piece of equipment sporting a glowing red “nose.” The playful concept leaned into a familiar holiday image, answering a simple question posed by the submission: what kid doesn’t love Santa, Rudolph and heavy equipment?
Superior Construction delivered a towering holiday statement at its Portage, Indiana office. The Jacksonville, Florida-based contractor suspended a 28-foot metal Christmas tree from a crane, turning heavy lifting into holiday spectacle.
The “megatree” was illuminated with 3,200 lights, along with an additional 150 lights in the star crowning the display. According to the submission, installing the tree required coordination among 14 team members and relied on a restored 1969 American 5299 crane to hold the structure in place.
DPR Construction once again took its holiday display skyward. Working on the Inova Franconia-Springfield Hospital project in Springfield, Virginia, the Redwood City, California-based contractor illuminated three cranes, creating a vertical light show visible across the surrounding area.
The display was designed to bring cheer to both the workforce and the broader community while maintaining full safety compliance, according to the submission. The result was a bright, elevated reminder that even large-scale construction sites can reflect seasonal warmth.
Together, the displays reflect a lighter side of an industry often defined by tight schedules and technical complexity. As Construction Dive’s contest entries show, builders across the country are finding ways to combine craftsmanship, community pride and holiday tradition — proving that festive spirit can shine just as brightly on a jobsite as anywhere else.
Originally reported by Matthew Thibault in Construction Dive.
