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Christmas is upon us! Thanksgiving is out of the way, which means it’s officially time to decorate your house. When I began looking at my available decorations, I realized something: Christmas lights are old tech and boring. Most of them aren’t LED, and if one light burns out or is seated improperly, an entire section of the string burns out! I already am used to smart LED bulbs that I use in my daily life, so that got me to thinking: are there any high tech solutions for decorating? I’m here to break it down.

The Unfortunate Fact: There Isn’t a Convenient Solution

I began quickly searching the web for “high tech Christmas lights.” Quickly, I realized there is no LIFX or Philips Hue equivalent in the world of Christmas lights. Sure, there are LED Christmas lights (which are a great option), but they’re still low tech. This is when I realized: you have to go deeper and make the lights smart on your own.

“Alexa, turn the lights on.”

41yh0p1tkyl-_sl1000_If you’re looking for a great way to up your tech game on your lights, you can start by getting WiFi-enabled smart plugs. We’ve had timer plugs for years that can turn your set up on and off on a schedule, but what if you want full customizability? If you want to be able to easily edit your schedule, turn lights on and off using your phone, and even ask Alexa to turn your lights on for you, this is a great route to go. I would recommend checking out the TP-Link HS100 Smart Plug. You can get 2 plugs for $54.99 – just make sure they are within range of your network, and make sure they are in a safe area. I don’t think these plugs are for outdoor use, so you may want to use them indoors only.

Smart Bulbs can Spice Up the Mood

While there aren’t many dedicated smart Christmas decorations, good old smart light bulbs can really spice up the mood. You can set it to any color you want. Green and red would really bring on the holiday theme! Both the LIFX bulbs and Philips Hue bulbs will do the job.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there aren’t any native Christmas lights that are smart! We can only look forward to future technology to provide us with that. For now, using some smart plugs, some smart bulbs, and an Amazon Echo, we can get a fairly “smart” set up.

Kevin Nether