• Get creative with outdoor holiday lights.Winter Holiday Lights image by Scott Griessel from Fotolia.com
  
  Expand your holiday decorating with outdoor lighting displays. Many people decorate outdoors for the winter holidays, but there are various ways you can decorate for all of the holidays during the year. You can even use the same basic lighting set up to accommodate your year-round holiday decorating if you select your pieces well. Once you get started creating outdoor holiday lighting displays, you might find that your imagination takes over and all kinds of original designs of your own spring to mind
  
  

Icicle Lights

• Icicle lights have become popular during the Christmas season, but they also work for various other holidays throughout the year. Get programmable LED icicle lights and set them to display different colors to suit the current holiday, such as green for St. Patrick's Day. LED icicle lights give off very little heat, so you can set them to white and place small plastic decorations on them to match pretty much any occasion. For example, hang plastic Easter eggs on them for your outdoor Easter party.
  
  

Strobe Lights for Halloween

• Use strobe lights for an eerie effect in your front yard during Halloween (be sure they are designed for outdoor use). Set the strobes to the slowest setting, then point them at various scary displays in your yard. Set the strobes to go off at different times to randomize the lighting of ghosts and ghouls, adding the element of surprise to the spook factor.
  
  

St. Patrick's Day

• Green lights worked in with the shrubs and tree limbs in your front yard create a multi-faceted, glowing green display for St. Patrick's Day. If you have ornamental grasses, place green lights in them, as well. Use programmable LED lights to create chasing or strobing patterns to enhance the effect.
  
  

Fourth of July

• For the Fourth of July, use red, white and blue flood lights in your front yard and shine them on your house. Put programmable LED lights in your trees and have them flash red, white and blue in alternating strobe patterns to create the effect of fireworks.