Halloween

Orange and purple down the whole roofline, a slow flicker across the gables, or the entire house in a single deep orange. Halloween is the night this system earns its keep with the under-tens.

Set it for the week, not the evening. Trick-or-treating in Alberta happens in the dark and often in the snow, and a house that is clearly, obviously lit is a house kids find. Turn it on when the pumpkins go out and switch back the moment you have had enough of it.

It is worth saying what this replaces: an extension cord out a window, a set of clips that lasted one season, and a ladder in late October. None of that is weather you want to be on a roof in.

On the first of November it goes back to warm white while you are still asleep, if that is how you set the schedule.