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Amazon Alexa has truly brought our holiday decor to the next level. My absolute favorite time of the year is Christmas, and that's partially because of how my home makes me feel with all of our decor set up. Lights everywhere inside and out, fireplace going, and Christmas music playing in the background...there really isn't much better. So in this post we're going to go over how to automate our Christmas decor using Amazon Alexa. We'll go over groups within the Amazon Alexa app (what to add and what not to add!), and routines within the app as well. Here's my indoor Christmas lights set-up:
Supplies Used to Make the Magic Happen:
Create a Christmas Routine:
There are a couple different ways to set up routines with Alexa. Here's some videos explaining how I set up my personal routine...this first video is how I created my Christmas Lights group:
This next video is how I inserted this group into my Christmas routine:
I used a variety of products here to make all of my Christmas lights inside and outside my house programmable. My Christmas tree, lights around my handrail on the stairs, my mini trees, and lights on top of my cupboards in my kitchen are all programmed using these smart outlets. If you don't have smart outlets installed around your home, you can also use a smart outlet socket. These made my standard Christmas lights capable of being added to my Christmas group and Christmas routine in Amazon Alexa.
My electric fireplace and strip light are both remote controlled, but with the help of my Broadlink, I was able to turn them into a smart device! Broadlink has helped me turn multiple ordinary remote controlled devices in my home into a smart device, allowing me to automate the devices and even add them to my Amazon Alexa routines! Check out my blog post on how to turn your remote controlled device into a smart device (here)!
Now I'll talk about Govee. I love all of my Govee products. Currently, I own the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights, Govee Ground Lights, and the Govee Indoor Strip Light, and I plan on adding much more to my collection. Their app is super user friendly, and you can program individual lights to any color you want. You can change the effects as well, making the lights move; clockwise, counterclockwise, twinkle, gradient...however you want, really! If you have no clue what you're doing and aren't feeling very adventurous, you can always select one of many pre-programmed themes. I, personally, enjoy messing around with the colors and effects to see what I can come up with. If you create something you like, you can save it as a snapshot for future use, and even share it with the Govee community so they can use it as well! I touched base on this a bit in my videos above, but these snapshots can be programmed within your Amazon routines. If I added my Govee lights to a group, they would turn on and automatically display the last color scheme that was showing on the Govee product. If you set up each Govee product in the routine individually, however, you can select which snapshot you want to display during your routine.
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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