They have small electric motors that cause the animals' heads to raise and lower or move from side to side. The animated figures are still fairly rare, and stores that have them said they are hard to keep in stock. Because most people use several lighted sculptures, remember to provide extra outdoor outlets to plug them in. Also remember that sculptures with motors use a little extra electricity. Also hard to keep in stock this year are spiral light Christmas trees.
Spiral trees have lights set in plastic tracks arranged in a spiral pattern.
The center of the spiral is supported by a pole, and the rest of the spiral hangs down, creating the triangular silhouette of a tree. Similar trees that use nylon nets instead of hard plastic spirals are a little less expensive. The biggest practical difference between traditional, straight-line strings of lights and icicle lights is density. That means the house you used to light by plugging extension cords into two or three outlets might now need several times as many power taps. Instead of stringing sets of lights end to end, you might have to supply electricity at more than one point along long stretches of lights, such as those reaching up gables or following gutters.