Expect to see projectors lighting up the street this Christmas

Icicle lights are so last season — this Christmas it's all about the projector.

The projectors have been flying off store shelves around the Greater Toronto Area — and while they're more expensive than your string of bulbs, they can can save you hours of decorating time.

And there's no need for ladders, according to an outdoor decorating guru at Canadian Tire told CBC News.

"You stake one in the ground and you cast thousands of lights all over your house or your tree," Jamie Christopher said. "People like them for… how quickly it is to get their whole house decorated for the season."

No more ladders

The popularity of the lights prompted a Barrie, Ont., couple to make the trip to Toronto to get a projector.

"You can't find them anywhere," Corey King said. "We checked North Bay, Collingwood, probably everywhere in about 100 kilometres, I guess."

That's some serious holiday spirit.

King lives "out in the country" and said he wants to put on quite the show.

To do that, he's planning to buy the souped-up projector, which topped out at about $220 and will cover more than 232 square metres in pinpricks of red, blue and green dots of light.

Built-in defrosters

Lucille Chenoweth said she was considering getting some to save her husband a trip up the ladder this year.

"It's different from what we've seen for years and years so I think that's a fabulous thing."

And don't fear the possibility of a white Christmas, the projectors come with extenders to raise them above the snow line.

Some even have built-in lens defrosters, Christopher said.

But before you shell out for this year's seasonal fad, remember these projectors could soon join icicle lights, blow-up characters and the other decorating ghosts of Christmases past.