Many homeowners love taking advantage of the opportunity to lavishly decorate their yards during the holiday season. Some may begin as a new homeowner with a small display and add to it each year, while others fulfill grand dreams of bright lights and big displays. Others find joy without lighted displays and decorate with a simple wreath on the door and a colored bulb in the porch light. Whatever the plan is, there are many types of lights to choose from or group together to add holiday cheer to the neighborhood.

String lights

Traditional string lights are available in many colors and styles. A string or more of lights adds holiday cheer to any home whether you prefer a uniform single-color display, multi-color or white. In addition to color choices, strings are also available in different shaped bulbs like mini, faceted, icicles and tubes.

Rope lights

Rope lights are mini lights encased in a flexible transparent hose-like tube. They're sold in coils or on spools for longer lengths. They can be wrapped around posts, trees, railings, furniture or shaped and twisted into shapes and letters. The lights can be seen from all sides of the tube so there's no turning bulbs to the outside for visibility. Diynetwork.com says, "Rope lights are strings of mini lights encased in flexible plastic; the entire tube looks like it's lit up. Rope lights are great for wrapping posts and making garlands of colored light."

Wire frame lights

If you're not interested in shaping rope lights into different shapes, lighted wire frame shapes are available already made into shapes. They can be purchased as 2D shapes that can hang on a house or fence or as 3D shapes that stand in the yard or on the porch. There is a wide variety of figures and shapes available for purchase at home centers and online.

Net lights

A fishnet mesh of mini lights is an easier way of decorating shrubs than meticulously wrapping and spacing strings of lights on each shrub. The lights are attached to the net in an evenly spaced pattern that gives the covered shrub full lighting coverage. Net lights can also be draped over furniture and other objects or fastened overhead on porch ceilings. Battery operated net lights are available which eliminates the need to run extension cords.

Fairy curtain lights

Numerous small bulbs hung in several vertical strings create the look of a curtain of showering lights. Use them to accent other light displays or alone on a porch or other outdoor structure like a pergola, archway or gazebo. They can also hang in front of a display and be pulled back like window drapes or a stage curtain that draws the eye to the main display.

Fairy globe lights

Single strings of small round bulbs can be purchased in white or multi-colored and hung as horizontal strands or draped and crisscrossed to illuminate a particular object. Fairy globe lights are versatile in that they can be remotely operated and offer different modes that flash, twinkle or stay on. Some brands can be brightened, dimmed or change color.

Projection spotlights

Laser light projectors are a fast, easy way to light up your house for Christmas. The light projector simply stakes into the ground where it can either be used as an alternative to hanging lights or to complement them. Some projection lights come with a variety of slide images for other holidays and events besides Christmas and can also be used indoors. However, there are potential opportunities to cause a nuisance to neighbors or even danger to air traffic when using laser projectors. When setting the projector up in the yard it should be aimed directly at your own house or garage, not into the sky or toward a neighbor's house. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website states, "Each holiday season for the past several years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)　has received reports from pilots who said they were distracted or temporarily blinded by residential laser-light displays." The site goes on to say that any person not complying with requests to redirect or turn off their projector can face an FAA civil penalty.

Whichever types of lights are used, holiday lights add joy and warmth to any yard during the holiday season.