SERIOUS Christmas light guy here. There are stand alone controllers out there you could run from a Rasberry PI and have total control of your lights from.
Are you on Facebook, ping me there and I can direct you to some groups and some other options for trim, light type, etc. Thinking of upgrading mine to something that matches the trim now, but the PEX tubing with strip lead in them have held up for 8 years now.
A lot of folks lights DO NOT hold up outside in that application.