How to techify your Christmas decorations
7 project ideas to put some tech in your festive trimmings
Christmas is a time for giving, sharing and, of course, tinkering.
Once you’ve adjusted all the baubles and finished faffing with the tinsel, though, there’s little left to keep you from twiddling your thumbs until the big day.
You could try that Sky Box bodge you’ve been planning – but, if you lose all those precious festive films stacked on its hard drive, you risk the wrath of kids and siblings alike.
Thankfully, you can occupy your restless hands with one of these Christmas projects, instead.
Bring some Yuletide tech to the proceedings courtesy of a raft of connected kit and smart stuff that’ll turn your tired trimmings into dazzling decor.
Christmas tree disco
Twinkly fairy lights might look pretty enough but, frankly, we want more from our tree. Enter these smart lights from LEDworks.
Wrap them around your tree, pair with the partner app (available on Android or iOS) and you’ll have a mappable array of bulbs at your complete disposal. It’s a technicolour dream come true.
Unlike other projects that require a lot of coding, this is a proper plug-and-play upgrade that’ll have you fixated on achieving the perfect light array. Each bulb appears as an outline on your smartphone screen and can be individually programmed.
It works over Wi-Fi, too, allowing you to use the built-in colour combinations and patterns or – and here’s the fun bit – create your own. It’ll smartly detect where the bulbs are placed on the tree, too, so all you need to worry about is the pattern.
Sound-controlled light show
The Christmas lights turf war is a story familiar to millions of town-dwellers the world over. Jeff bought a set of 1000 SuperBright Shiners, so Glen responded by buying a 30ft inflatable snowman. So it goes on.
Enter the fray in style by hooking a Raspberry Pi up to your light array and setting the show to your favourite Christmas tune. Or dubstep. It’s your choice.
You might have seen one of the many YouTube videos of village homes being frazzled and dazzled by a cacophany of light and sound – and all it takes to get started is a Raspberry Pi and a bit of software called LightShow Pi.
Hook your mini-computer up to your glowers and LightShow will use it as the central controller, automating the light show based on the frequency of the music you feed into it.
Better still, once you’ve nailed the basics there are a host of add-ons and tinkering options – like SMS contol. Neat.
Log fire on your walls
Few things are cosier at Christmas time than a proper log fire. Unfortunately, that cosiness requires a fireplace. And logs. The Stuff office has neither.
If you’ve got a TV and a Netflix account, though, you’re in luck: stick its famous Fireplace For Your Home film on your big screen and you’ll have all the crackling comfort of a real fire – without the sparks and sooty smoke that made us get rid of the things in the first place.
Want more? If you’ve got a spare iPad kicking around, download Hue Camera for iOS and point it at the TV. It talks to your Hue lights, changing their colour to match the predominant shades on your screen – a bit like a house-wide Ambilight.
It’ll need a bit of tweaking and works best when it’s stable – think: tripod – but, once its running, you’ll get pulsing orange warmth wherever you’ve got a Hue bulb. Sadly, it won’t roast your chestnuts.
Surprise snow machine
Forget the question of who’ll have to clean it up and the idea of an unexpected indoor snow shower seems a pretty good one.
Rig up Eurolite’s Confetti Machine to a Belkin WeMo switch and you’ll have all the ingredients for a surprise that’s sure to have snow-lovers smiling.
Create an IFTTT recipe for the WeMo so that it comes on at, say, 09.00 when you’re all in the living room opening presents. The result? An indoor snowstorm that doesn’t involve Dad flinging polystyrene around.
For an extra touch, you can set up a second switch to start some music playing at the same moment. Our suggestion? It has to be Walking In The Air.
If it goes well, you can repeat the trick with confetti and Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve.
Clever Christmas playlist
A festive playlist is as important to the Christmas mood as tinsel and crackers. Problem is, the last thing you want when you’re elbow-deep in turkey grease is to be fiddling with the audio controller.
Hook an Amazon Echo Dot up to your Sonos Play:5, and you’ll be able to control your Spotfiy account with nothing but your voice.
Sure, the full-size Echo cylinder has a speaker of its own but, if you want the proper, stereo experience for your December favourites, this is the way to do it.
Want to get even smarter? Get Amazon’s Alexa talking to your Hue and Nest kit and you’ll have a hands-free Christmas assistant: you can set the Hue lights to flash when your Alexa timer hits zero – so no burnt turkey drama – whilst a quick shout will turn the heating down if things are getting a little sweaty.
Smart Santa catcher
Santa is real. We all know it. It’s a fact. What do we all want, even more than the presents? To meet the big guy, of course.
Problem is, every time we try to stay awake to catch him coming down the chimney, the excitement sees us nod right off – not to mention the gin we’ve been sipping.
Hook up a Nest Cam with an IFTTT recipe and you’ll have a motion-sensing machine that’s sure to help you intercept the man in red.
It’ll trigger when it detects movement, so the lights will come on when Father Christmas arrives – hopefully waking you up in the process. If you’re too nervous to meet him, you can set the Cam up to record when something moves, instead, so you’ll at least have some footage of him doing his work.
The good news for parents? It’ll do double duty as an interceptor of kids up past their bedtime, too.
Hologram Nativity
Not every home has one, but the Nativity scene is a staple of many a festive setup. Now, you can bring the true meaning of Christmas into the 21st century with some hologram tech.
This US$100 kit from Litiholo uses holographic film to make 3D laser images that seem suspended in mid-air. The film plates require no development or chemicals, and make hologram creation both quicker and easier.
You can produce up to 20 holograms with a single kit, and all the necessary components are included – including the laser, plates and darkroom light.
Simply position your Nativity figures, prepare the plate and expose them to the laser. Twiddle your thumbs for a moment or two and in a jiffy you’ll have a holographic imprint of their Holy likenesses. Praise be.
Finishing touches
After all the clever kit upgrades, stick some low-tech trimmings around the house for the full tech effect.
BB-8 Baubles (£6.99)
Bring some Star Wars chic to your tree with these droid-like balls, themed like everyone’s (second) favourite robot from the Galaxy.
Batman Christmas Stocking (£6.99)
Sure, it might scare Santa, but there’s no-one quite like the Caped Crusader to guard your haul of gifts until opening time comes around.
Grow Your Own Christmas Tree (£6.99)
Forgot the tree? Fear not: this kit comes with the seeds, pots, pellets and, erm, incubation bag you need to grow a real one of your own.
Chris Rowlands
Freelance contributor 
