For all the noise about the holiday season starting earlier and earlier, the real way to know Christmas is coming is when you find you can no longer walk down the old neighborhood at night without getting blinded by the holiday light.

If you want to start off decorating your yard with some standard white lights that have a good reputation for being able to be pulled out of the garage and used year after year, you could always go for Noma’s Holiday Wonderland 300-Count Clear Christmas Mini Light Set. On Amazon they run for only $19.49.

There is an apparent debate over standard lights vs. light emitting diode (LED) decorations – which can cost more but perhaps save you money by using less energy, plus they look like those fuel tubes that fed the Millennium Falcon.

If you are going to wrap your trees with LEDs, the LA Shop has a 50-foot Christmas Lighting LED Rope Light with connector for just $40.99.

Target is offering a 10-foot Smith & Hawken LED light string for $21.99; the light sting comes with a timer feature so you can set the lights to come on as you get home from work and go off when you get to sleep. They also have a 10-count silver snowflake string of lights for $24.99.

As always, Gemmy has some snazzy outdoor décor, and this season they have got a multicolored Outdoor Kaleidoscope Spotlight that comes with its own ground stakes and projects swirling lights onto the frontyard. The spotlight is in stock and on sale for $19.98 at Home Depot.

Wal-Mart has their frosted looking LightShow 5ct LED Shooting Star Icicle Light String on sale for $29.97.

And Christmas Central has a set of five Polar White LED Lighted Snowflake Icicle Christmas Lights on white wire for $17.99. The “Polar white” bulbs have a slight bluish hue,  and each snowflake has 10 lights.