5 Ways To Use Smart Devices This Holiday Season
With smart technology being easier to use and cheaper than ever to buy we thought you’d like to know the best smart devices to use this holiday season. These ideas aren’t just to let your neighbors know how awesome you are but to simplify and smartify your holidays so you can enjoy the little things a bit more. Without further ado… Here’s our list of the top ways to use smart devices this holiday season.
#1 – Use Smart Plugs To Schedule Your Outdoor Holiday Lights And Christmas Tree
The simplest, and likely most cost-effective, smart device for your holiday decorating are smart home plugs. Instead of using a bulky old outlet timer or digging around to manually plug-in and unplug the lights everyday use a smart plug to turn your outdoor lights and Christmas tree lights on and off. You can easily set schedules using the smart plug’s phone app and adjust the time on the fly with a click of a button. Even better if you have an Alexa-enabled device such as an Echo Dot or a Google Assistant device such as the Google Home Mini you can turn the lights on and off with your voice.
For indoor use there are a lot of great options such as the Wemo Mini Smart Plug, Teckin Smart Mini Plugs, and of course Amazon’s Smart Plug. You’re best bet for outdoor smart plugs that can handle colder conditions, as well as some rain or snow, might just be the Maxico Outdoor Smart Plug.
#2 – Use Smart LED Light Strips To Change The Color Of Your Christmas Tree Lights With Your Voice. And Other Fun Things You Can Do With The Smart Light Strips
Instead of just using the standard string lights to brighten up your Christmas tree consider adding some smart light strips. Most of these light strips aren’t very long generally 7 – 10 feet so you might want to just include these with your existing string lights to add a bit more flare.
You can also use these smart light strips to add color around other decorations in your home or outside such as around your hanging stockings, wreaths, nativity scenes, Santa Claus, well you get the idea.
Some of the more popular and best reviewed smart LED smart light strips are from Philips Hue, LIFX, and YEELIGHT. The great thing about these smart light strips is you can use them year round for different holiday decorating such as Halloween or just to add some lighting ambiance in your home or outside.
#3 – Use Smart Portable Speakers To Play Holiday Music Outside
What better way to put someone in the Christmas spirit than by hearing holiday music. You can pair these portable bluetooth speakers to your smart speaker such as a Google Home or Amazon Echo device leaving them protected from the weather inside while you play holiday music outside. Or just use your smart phone to play holiday music connected to your Pandora, Spotify, or Amazon Music account.
Some of the best bluetooth speakers to accomplish this without breaking the bank, and also provide piece of mind in case the outside elements have their way, are the Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speaker, DOSS Touch Portable Speaker, and OontZ Angle 3 Splashproof Portable Bluetooth Speaker.
Keep in mind some people are not fans of holiday songs so don’t play your music too loud or you won’t have many holly jolly neighbors 🙂
#4 – Add A Creepy Talking Christmas Tree To Slowly Drive Your Family Insane
Alright, the truth is we just added this section for some comic relief. Regardless, this is still pretty awesome and you can actually do this. Buy the Douglas Talking Fir Tree and the Echo Dot and make this nightmare a reality for this holiday season. Your family will not thank you but your whole neighborhood might stop by to check it out 🙂
#5 – A Little Peace Of Mind If You’re Traveling This Holiday Season (And Protection From The Porch Pirates)
If you’re anything like us you’ll be doing most of your holiday shopping online. And with that a real problem can be porch pirates. None of us want to think about bad things during the holiday season but sometimes a little security can provide peace of mind.
With that said the last item on our holiday smart device list is none other than the Ring Video Doorbell. If you haven’t heard of the Ring it is basically exactly what it is called 🙂 A doorbell that also is a security video camera.
Additionally, using the Ring app you are able to watch over your home whether you’re inside or away. So if you head out of town to visit the relatives this holiday season you’ll have some peace of mind know your home is being watched for you.
Connecting to your wifi you’ll receive instant alerts when your doorbell is triggered. Any motion detected will start recording video so if a porch pirate does steal a holiday present you’ll have video evidence for the authorities.
So that’s that! Our list of smart devices to help your holiday season be easier and be a bit more enjoyable. Happy holidays from the folks at GetSmartHomeDevices.com.
That’s the end of the article. You shouldn’t be reading this anymore. Go get some smart home devices. It will help us pay for writing these amazing articles 🙂
