Christmas is right around the corner, and while the season is full of fun, presents and overindulging, it can get quite stressful, especially if you’re the one hosting and cooking this year.
But that’s where smart home technology comes in. Trust me – not only am I a smart home expert, but I’ve hosted my fair share of Christmases and I don’t know what I would have done without these handy devices guiding me through my festive food prep, and getting me in the Christmas spirit.
Here’s five ways I use my smart home gadgets to take the stress out of the big day, and to keep the fun times rolling for myself and my family.
1. Set timers and playlists on your smart speaker
One of the main ways I use my smart speaker is for timers. When you’re cooking Christmas lunch and juggling its many components, the last thing you want to do is faff around with setting multiple timers. Instead, using a smart speaker or display with a voice assistant can do this for you quickly and hands-free.
I’ve been using the Echo Dot Max for the past few weeks and it really came in handy while I was making my Christmas cake. Aside from shouting at it to set timers and to remind me when I’ve got x amount of minutes remaining, I also love using my smart speaker to play Christmas playlists to get myself and my guests in the mood for festivities – and to drown out my constant yelling at how much cooking time I have left!
2. Turn on/off your Christmas lights with a smart plug
A smart plug is a deeply underrated gadget, but it’s one of the handiest devices I have in my home. For non-smart devices, a smart plug can make them smart by allowing you to turn them on and off remotely with your phone, while also checking your energy usage.
December is always an expensive time of the year, but add in a hike in your energy bills due to your Christmas lights, it can get pretty extortionate. There’s also nothing worse than getting cosy in bed and then realising you left your Christmas tree on so plugging your Christmas lights into a smart plug can save you the hassle.
To take it one step further, you can buy smart Christmas tree lights which use energy-saving LEDs and have a fun variety of scenes you can choose via the app on your phone – see are smart holiday lights worth it? for our honest opinion on them.
3. Upgrade your smart lighting with festive scenes
Speaking of scenes, if you have smart bulbs already set up inside or outside your home, you can make them more Christmassy with different colours and schedules. Many smart lighting brands have this option, including Philips Hue, Nanoleaf and Govee, so there’s a lot of opportunity to play around with your Christmas decorations.
In your lighting app, you can pick from up to 16 million colours so you could change your normal, white bulbs to glow red, green and gold to fit with the season. What’s even better is when Christmas is over (boo), you don’t have to take the lights down or replace your bulbs as you can go back to your normal lighting colour and brightness – although hot pink lights for your kitchen sound way more fun, if you ask me.
4. Entertain visitors with video doorbell Christmas quick replies
This is one of my favourite video doorbell tricks, and it will definitely have your guests and local postie feeling the Christmas spirit. Depending on the video doorbell you have, you might not be able to use this trick as not every model or brand has quick replies as an option. But if you have a Ring video doorbell, you’ll love this.
In the Ring app, you can change your quick replies to something festive themed. Rather than ‘sorry, we’re not in right now’ playing when someone rings the bell, you can select one of Ring’s pre-recorded festive replies. Ring has many options available but my favourites are the Grinch quick replies which has the Grinch and his dog Max answering the door for you.
5. Dress up as Santa and ‘get caught’ on your security camera
This last one is definitely silly, but it’s Christmas, after all! If you want to keep the Christmas magic alive for your kids, this is a fun thing to do with your security camera so they get even more excited for Christmas morning.
Get someone in your household to dress up as Santa and have them pretend to deliver gifts in perfect view of your security camera. Your security camera will capture and save the footage so you can show it to your kids the next morning to show that Santa is real!
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