Clark Griswold would be thrilled. Thanks to advances in lighting technology, suburban dads (and moms) across the country have a lot to choose from when it comes to creative ways to deck their halls for the holidays this year. Forget about white incandescent lights and animatronic reindeer. Think lasers. Think smartphones. And hundreds, if not millions, of color choices.

To Our Readers: Share your holiday display

If you go all-out for your outdoor holiday decorations, get listed in our annual Holiday Lights guide Dec. 15. Provide a description of the display and a photo if possible. Be sure to include your street and email address and phone number.

The Today/Features section also is looking for exceptional or unique holiday-bedecked yards for our Garden Party series.

Email features@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4747. The deadline for submitting information is Dec. 8.

RGB LIGHTS

Single light bulbs that hold three LEDs — red, green and blue — are the secret behind a new category of holiday lights that offer up to 16 million color combinations.

Known as RGB lights, they can be dialed up or down in a variety of ways via a smartphone app. And because their color range is so varied, they can be kept up year-round and used for any number of holidays — Halloween, the Fourth of July, Easter, you name it.

Lumenplay offers the most colors by far at more than 16 million. The exotic lighting system doesn’t come cheap ($79.99 for a starter pack) and is available only in 10-foot strands. But you can string as many as 500 lights together on one controller, which comes with the starter pack.

GE also offers RGB lighting technology with its new iTwinkle light sets and pre-lit Christmas trees.

‘SMART’ LIGHTS

Talk of RGB technology leads into the next holiday lighting trend: "smart" lights controlled by your smartphone.

Both the Lumenplay and iTwinkle systems are operated via apps available for Apple and Android phones. With just a swipe, you can dim or brighten outdoor lights, set them to music or choose new colors and patterns.

Most of these apps have a range of up to 150 feet, meaning you can control the action from across the yard or while plopped on your couch watching the Griswolds in "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation."

"No longer do you have to venture outside to plug in your lights," says Dave Geraci with Ohio-based Technical Consumer Products, which has a smart home lighting system that links to a home’s Wi-Fi or mobile network.

BATTERY-POWERED LIGHTS

This technology has been around awhile but was mostly limited to smaller, incandescent light strands that you’d put in a window box or small porch display.

Now they come in LED strands up to 30 feet long with batteries that are much more powerful and longer-lasting. Many feature auto-timers and buttons that control blinking and other patterns.

At online retailer Lights.com you can connect up to six strands of battery-powered lights for a total of 600 LED lights on one battery pack, spoke­swoman Aimee Majo­ros says.

You know what that means? 180 feet of energy-saving holiday sparkle.

PROJECTED LASER LIGHTS

Using small spotlights, this technology pro­jects thousands of tiny pinpoints of red, green or red AND green lights onto your home or any other hard surface. Cali­for­nia-based BlissLights offers them for $179 or $199 each, depending on whether the lights are in motion.

To a passer-by, "at first glance they look like traditional holiday rope lights, but actually they float freely across the house’s exterior, plants and more to create a display that neighbors will think took hours to design and hang," BlissLights spokes­woman Nata­lia Barclay says.

No cords or wires are involved, says Nick Burks of Atlanta-based Pinnacle Lighting Group. "For people who live in the northern part of the country, it’s extremely helpful when you have to take them down and it’s 0 degrees outside," he says. "Instead of taking a string of lights down in January, just unplug the fixture and put it in a box and you’re done."