Renting a Trailer for Holiday Decorating: Hauling Inflatables, Displays, and Lights

Holiday decor is the awkward trifecta: bulky, fragile, and out in the cold, wet season when you are hauling it. Whether it is a garage full of inflatables and light-up figures headed for the front yard or a storage unit of displays that has to get across town, the trip is where decor gets soaked, crushed or blown off the trailer. An enclosed trailer heads off all of it at once. Here is why enclosed is the right call, how to run from off-site storage, and how to load and secure inflatables, displays and lights so everything shows up whole.

Why an enclosed trailer

For holiday decor, an enclosed trailer beats an open one on all three problems at once: weather, theft, and a light load that wants to blow away. You are decorating in the cold, wet months, hauling breakable and valuable stuff, and moving items light enough to lift right out of an open deck at highway speed.

The enclosed box handles each one. The walls and roof keep rain, snow and road spray off the electronics, fabric inflatables and paper-backed decor that water ruins. The locking door protects a valuable display while you are parked or between stops. And the enclosure keeps light, bulky pieces contained instead of scattered down the road behind you. The one thing to watch is condensation inside the trailer, since decor does not like trapped moisture any more than it likes rain. Read more about when an enclosed trailer is worth the extra cost, and about how to keep moisture and condensation out of an enclosed trailer.

Hauling from off-site storage

If your decor lives in an off-site storage unit, an enclosed trailer is both the way to get it out and the mobile base you work from. Load it at the unit, drive to the display, and keep everything locked in one place in between.

Stage the trailer right at the storage unit and load it in the order you will unload it, so the first thing out is the first thing you need. At the site, keep the trailer as your staging box rather than carrying totes back and forth, and lock it whenever you step away. For a business, that trailer becomes the rolling storage room for the entire run, which is a lot less handling than loading and unloading a truck at every stop.

Load the bulky stuff right

Holiday decor is almost all volume and very little weight, so load it to use the space without crushing the fragile pieces. A stack that fits is not the same as a stack that survives the drive.

Put the heaviest items low and forward, the bases, the stakes, the totes of extension cords, and keep the bulky-but-light pieces like deflated inflatables and wireframes up top where nothing presses on them. Never pile something heavy on something fragile. Think in cubic space rather than pounds, because with decor you will run out of room long before you get anywhere near the trailer's weight limit. Read more about how to load a trailer, step by step for the weight-distribution side of it.

Protect the fragile pieces

The breakable decor, blow molds, light-up figures, glass ornaments and bulbs, needs padding and its own space, because a cracked figure or a smashed string of lights is the trip's usual casualty. Wrap it before it goes anywhere near the trailer.

Pad blow molds and lit figures with moving blankets or their original boxes, and keep glass and bulbs in closed totes where nothing can crush them. Coil light strings loosely rather than cramming them, which spares the bulbs and saves you a tangle next year. Fold inflatables cleanly so the fans and seams are not stressed, and set all the fragile pieces where nothing heavy can shift onto them mid-drive. Ten minutes of wrapping is cheaper than replacing a display piece you cannot find in stock in December.

Secure a light load

A light load still has to be tied down, because bulky, lightweight decor shifts and tumbles in transit even though it is not heavy. Loose totes and figures slide, fall and crack on the first hard stop just the same as anything else.

Strap and anchor your items to the trailer's tie-down points, and fill the gaps with soft goods so nothing has room to slide into its neighbor. Use the trailer walls to brace tall pieces upright. Do not assume that light means it will stay put, because a sliding inflatable box will crush the tote of ornaments next to it just fine. Read more about how to secure furniture and appliances in an enclosed trailer.

Decorating multiple sites

For a business decorating several properties, the enclosed trailer is the mobile base that carries the whole kit and keeps it secure between stops. One loaded trailer runs the route instead of reloading a truck at every site.

Load the full run once, work out of the trailer site to site, and lock it between stops and overnight. Keep the decor organized by site or type so each stop is quick and you are not digging for a box in someone's driveway. It turns a multi-site job into one loop, and a multi-day or seasonal rental keeps the trailer with you for the stretch.

What about insurance and damage protection?

Before towing a rented trailer, contact your auto insurance provider to ask whether your policy covers liability and towing-related damage claims.

Eligible rentals booked through Big Rentals also include Basic Rental Protection at checkout. This added protection can help limit your financial responsibility for certain damage or theft events during the rental period.

For full details on how Basic Rental Protection works, including deductibles, exclusions, and renter responsibilities, review our FAQ and platform terms.

The Short Version

• An enclosed trailer keeps decor dry, locks it up, and keeps light bulky pieces from blowing off, all at once
• If your decor is in off-site storage, load at the unit and work out of the locked trailer as your mobile base
• Load heavy and low, bulky-and-light on top, and think in space, since decor fills the trailer long before it hits the weight limit
• Wrap blow molds and figures, keep glass and bulbs in totes, coil lights loosely, and fold inflatables cleanly
• Tie down even a light load and fill the gaps, because bulky decor still slides and cracks on a hard stop
• For multiple sites, load the whole run once and work the route out of one locked trailer

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