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Holiday Smart Home – Elf on the Shelf Edition – The Floor is Lava!

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THE FLOOR IS LAVA!

It is SO HARD to come up with ideas for Elf on the Shelf. I felt like I was just moving the elf from one spot to another, and making the Elf very...I don't know...lame? so I decided to start brainstorming. How can I add some magic and really wow my kids?


Insert: Carlson Smart Home (Elf on the Shelf Edition)


My kids (and probably all kids) love “The Floor is Lava”. Love, love, love. Imagine...your child wakes up some weekend in December excited to see what that silly elf has done. They open their door and see a note on the ground. They (or you, if they can't read) read it out loud: "Alexa, the floor is lava".......all of a sudden, the entire ground turns red, there are pillows laid out on the floor, a random blanket pile here and there, a chair or two, and Alexa starts blaring "The Floor is Lava!". Even better, your kiddo had a friend stay the night, so they're witnessing this whole thing as well! They go to school on Monday and tell all their friends about it. You have the coolest elf ever. The best house ever. Life is good.


Now, how do you make this happen?


Supplies Used:

How do you set this whole thing up?

There's a few things you can do during the day (or days before) to prepare for this set-up. I created a snapshot in Govee for my Govee Indoor Strip Light so when this "Floor is Lava" routine started, they would be a specific color (red) when the routine was triggered. I also created my routine days in advance so I could try it out and make sure it was going to work how I wanted it to. Here's the video on how to set this all up in the Amazon Alexa app:











The night before, I waited until the kids were asleep. I lined the perimeters of the living room / dining room / kitchen (pretty much my entire upstairs) with the Standard Christmas Lights (Red) and plugged them into one of my Smart Outlets (or Smart Sockets) so they could be added to the routine. I then covered the entire floor with cheap plastic red table cloths and grabbed pillows, a few of my kid sized chairs, chairs from the dining table, blankets, and other random things, and placed them all over the ground. Finally, I made a note from our elf that simply said "Alexa, the floor is lava" and set it in front of my kids door. I made the note as obvious as possible so they couldn't miss it.


....and then the magic happens. The scenario I described earlier with the kid having a sleepover is actually how it all happened at our house last year around Christmas time, and I get to use this again this year! My kiddo has talked about this all year long, and her friend that stayed the night even brings it up still! I plan on making the obstacles a bit more challenging to make it a somewhat different from last year, and all I need to do is edit my routine from last year to use some Govee snapshots I created since then to make it even more magical.


Need Help?

Do you have an idea that you're trying to make come to life? Let me know what you're trying to do and I'll do my best to help make it happen! Thank you for reading, check out my other posts or my YouTube Channel to learn more ways to turn your home into an everyday smart home or a smart home for the holidays!

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