Christmas is the ultimate stress test for your home. The heating is working overtime, the Wi-Fi is groaning under the strain of extra phones and tablets, and there always seems to be one guest who arrives just as you're juggling roast potatoes and Prosecco.
A few smart upgrades can make all of that feel much calmer – quietly taking care of comfort, lighting, music, and even the clean-up while you get on with hosting.
Wi-Fi and smart home hubs
Before you start adding gadgets, it's worth sorting the basics. Nothing kills a festive mood faster than a flaky connection or a smart bulb that keeps failing.
A strong Wi-Fi network is the quiet hero of any modern home, especially at Christmas when phones, tablets, TVs, and laptops are competing for bandwidth.
You'll also want a simple way to control everything once it is connected. Smart home hubs and wall-mounted panels pull your lights, heating, speakers, and security into one interface, so you are not constantly hopping between apps.
Devices like Amazon’s Echo Hub, Eufy’s smart displays, or TP-Link’s Tapo hubs give you a central dashboard for quick tweaks and favourite scenes – ideal when you want to dim the dining room lights or nudge the thermostat.
Finally, we recommend picking a main ecosystem and stick to it. Building around Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Home means guests can use straightforward voice commands, and it makes it easier to set up routines that run across multiple brands.
Smart thermostats and heating controls
When you have a house full of people, keeping everyone comfortable without roasting the place is a delicate balancing act.
A smart thermostat takes a lot of that mental load away, letting you tweak temperatures from your phone, set schedules that match your hosting plans, and avoid heating empty rooms when guests are out at markets or the pub.
When we tested the Nest Learning Thermostat and the Tado Smart Thermostat, we found that the best systems combine neat wall units with clear apps, flexible scheduling, and reliable remote control.
Pairing a main thermostat with smart radiator valves gives you finer room-by-room control, too, so you can keep the living room and dining area toasty while dialling back spare rooms during the day.
Smart Christmas lighting
Lighting is the easiest way to make your home feel instantly more festive – and smart lighting lets you do it without crawling under the tree to wrestle with a tangle of plugs.
We've tested a few stand-outs we would happily trust with Christmas duties: Philips Hue Festavia for slick integration with existing Hue bulbs, Nanoleaf’s smart string lights for bold colour and playful effects, and Twinkly’s app-controlled strings for big, showy animations indoors or out.
Between them, you can cover the tree, banister, windows, and even the front of the house without resorting to separate remotes or old-school timers.
The real time-saver is scheduling and scenes. Set indoor and outdoor lights to come on automatically as it gets dark and shut off late at night, so you are not doing a last tour of the house before bed.
Smart speakers
Music is one of the easiest ways to make your home feel welcoming when guests arrive – and smart speakers make it much simpler to keep that going all day.
Over the years, we've have tested a stack of smart and Wi-Fi speakers, and a few stand out: compact Alexa speakers like the Echo Dot Max are ideal for kitchens, and Sonos remains a great choice if you want multi-room audio that just works. Meanwhile, Google Nest speakers suit anyone already deep in the company’s apps and services.
Whichever camp you are in, the key is to put a couple of smaller speakers in busy spots, then create a group so you can pipe the same playlist through the whole ground floor.
Robot vacuums
Once the presents are opened and the Quality Street tins are empty, the real Christmas challenge is keeping on top of the mess.
A good robot vacuum can quietly take on most of that work – slipping out for a tidy-up while you are out on a walk, or doing a quick sweep of the living room after the guests have gone to bed.
The smartest models now do far more than just zigzag around the carpet. In our tests, high-end cleaners such as the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, Dreame X50 Ultra Complete, Eufy Omni S1 Pro, and Shark’s latest flagships cope easily with the extra dirt that comes with visitors.
Once your rooms are mapped, sending the robot to patrol the kitchen, hallway, and tree corner becomes a one-tap job.
Smart security and access
The front door sees a lot of action over Christmas, from parcels turning up, guests arriving at odd hours, to neighbours dropping by with mince pies.
Smart security kit removes much of the faff, letting you see who is there without abandoning the gravy, and helping you avoid missed deliveries when you nip out.
When we tested Ring’s latest battery-powered doorbells, we found the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus strikes a sweet spot between price, resolution, and a wide field of view, while the newer Ring Battery Video Doorbell offers a more affordable route into the ecosystem.
Aqara’s Smart Doorbell Camera G410 impressed us with strong video quality and the neat trick of doubling as a hub for other Aqara devices.
If you would rather avoid drilling altogether, Wyze’s Window Cam sticks to the inside of a window and looks out through the glass, making it one of the easiest cameras to install.
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