The season of twinkling lights and festive cheer is upon us. While traditional decorations have their charm, today's smart home technology offers an opportunity to elevate your holiday display into something truly spectacular. Imagine a synchronized symphony of light and music that wows the neighborhood, or subtle, intelligent lighting that welcomes guests with warmth and wonder.

By leveraging the same smart home automation and security products that provide everyday convenience and safety, you can create a holiday display that is not only breathtaking but also incredibly efficient and easy to manage. Let's explore how to transform your home into a high-tech holiday wonderland with devices from HomeControls.com.

1. The Heart of Your Home For the Holidays: Your Smart Hub

Just like a volunteer choir group needs a conductor or lead singer, your automated holiday display needs a central command center to coordinate all your programmed routines. A smart hub is essential for monitoring and controlling all your different devices and grouping some or all of them together into automated routines, both day to day routines and seasonal smart scenes. A smart hub is the brains of the entire operation, allowing all your different devices to work in perfect harmony.

The Devices: The Aeotec Smart Home Hub or the HomeSeer HomeTroller Pi G3 Smart Home Hub

Both the Aeotec Smart Home Hub and the HomeSeer HomeTroller are powerful smart hubs capable of coordinating dozens of smart devices and that communicate using various different communication protocols (Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Zigbee, Insteon, etc.). This means you can mix and match devices from different brands without being locked into one ecosystem.

• The Aeotec Smart Home Hub has the benefits of a more approachable user interface and setup, while the HomeSeer HomeTroller offers greater customization through various software plug-ins.
• If you have Wi-Fi connected devices (including smart seasonal decorations plugged into smart outlets) and maybe some Z-Wave security sensors, either smart hub can group these devices together to create a smart (or festive) scene.
• Instead of a standard security scene such as “When motion is detected at the front gate, turn on the security light and have the security alarm chirp”, create a scene where "When motion is detected at the front gate, brighten the path lights to 50%, flash the strobe light three times, and play prerecorded music for 30 seconds."

2. Dazzling Light Shows: On Sensors, On Timers! On Donner, On Blitzen!

Static lights are beautiful, but dynamic, synchronized lighting is mesmerizing. Smart lighting control allows for color changing, dimming, and precise timing that brings a new level of magic to your display.

The Devices: Motion Sensors and Open/Close Sensors

Motion Sensors: Motion sensors are the most common smart device used to trigger events in smart homes or security systems. When it detects motion, it can send a signal to your smart hub, which will then trigger every device in your preprogrammed scene. Some devices have motion sensors built-into them, such as security floodlights or switches, which can simplify installation. Place motion sensors at the entrance to your yard or walkway to activate colorful lights, musical animatronics, or even a fake snow blower or bubble blower to create a wintery scene.

Open/Close Sensors: If you have a front gate at the edge of your property or a security door, Open/Close Sensors (aka door/window or contact sensors) will activate scenes or alarms when a gate or door is opened and reset once the object is closed again. 

Use More Than One Trigger! Hide additional motion or open/close sensors near a prop for an extra automated event separate from your general holiday routine. You can even set up your smart doorbell as a trigger for another set of lights or plug-in devices. When a guest or passerby interacts with the trigger device, it will activate an additional device, such as a nearby light or sound machine.

3. Deck the Halls/Gutters/Yard with Smart Lighting and Plug-In Modules

Lighting is the most impactful element of any holiday display. Ditching simple plug-in timers for smart lighting allows for dynamic, dramatic, and reactive scenes.

The Devices: Color Changing Lights, Wired Modules, Smart Plugs

Color Changing Light Bulbs & Strips (RGBW):Brands like Enbrighten, SATCO, GE, Philips HUE, and others offer RGBW light bulbs or strips that can be used to drastically change the environment in creative and colorful ways. Line your walkway or gutters or wrap your trees with light strips that change color when a motion sensor is triggered, schedule a timer for the lights to change from a warm and inviting white to festive red and green, or make your windows and eaves pulse in time with music.

Wired Control Modules: Install these modules from Shelly behind your light switches or your outdoor outlets to control high-voltage lights or plug-in decorations. Use them to turn on lights, inflatables, or animatronics at specific times or in response to a motion sensor detecting nearby movement.

Outdoor/Indoor Smart Plugs:These plug-in control modules will be your workhorse for adding smart control over most of your plug-in decorations. Use them to power animatronics and light-up props and add scheduled On/Off commands based on timers or in response to triggers from paired smart sensors. With a smart plug, you can schedule each of your rooftop lights, tree wrap lights, and/or inflatables independently or group them into scenes.

4. A Symphony of Sound: Outdoor Audio

Any holiday light show is incomplete without a soundtrack. From classic carols to festive jazz, smart audio solutions let you set the perfect auditory scene. With the right speakers, Smart speaker placement can create a surround-sound experience.

The Devices: Outdoor Speakers connected to a Multi-room Audio System

Use Lithe Audio IO1 Speakers and Garden Rock Speakers to create an outdoor multi-zone audio experience. Using multiple IO1 Speakers you can surround the outdoor area with audio from your holiday playlist of seasonal music

With the disguised Garden Rock Speakers can do the same play as the IO1 speakers, OR play different audio from an audio book or Youtube clip streaming from a dedicated smart device or computer. Since the Garden Rock Speakers are Bluetooth enabled, they will need to be closer to their streaming source, which may require careful placement of the speakers or their streaming source.

Putting It All Together: Scenes for a Smart Holiday

Let's imagine a few automated sequences using the devices above:

Scene 1: Outdoor Holiday Decorations

1 The Setup: You have at least one of every item mentioned above and set up an Evening scene where the pathway and porch lights are on, your sensors are active, your smart plug-in modules are off, and Wi-Fi connected speakers are on standby with the selected audio paused.

2. The Trigger: A car pulls up or someone walks by, triggering your Contact or Motion Sensor.

3. The Sequence Begins: The sensor sends a signal to the Smart Hub which executes a programmed Holiday scene:

All the smart lights along the roofline instantly change color from a steady white to a dynamic, chasing red and green pattern. The lights will change back to white after 5 minutes.

Any Smart Plugs powering electronic decorations activate, while your Wi-Fi speakers lower their volume, depending on your preference or how loud your electronic decorations are.

4. The Main Event: As the visitor approaches the front door, they trip a second hidden motion sensor (or rings the doorbell if you have a smart compatible doorbell). This will activate your Wi-Fi connected smart speaker to begin playing your holiday music. After the song ends, the lights return to their static display, and the audio fades out.

Scene 2: The Cozy Evening

1. The Trigger: At 5:30 PM, your smart hub's “Evening” scene activates. It sends a command to all indoor Dimmer Modules, outdoor Smart Plugs, and motion sensors.

2: The Scene Change: All indoor lighting dims to 50%, creating a cozy ambiance. In rooms where motion is detected, the dimmers will return the indoor lights to 100%. Meanwhile, all outdoor holiday lights, inflatables, and the audio system power on simultaneously.

3. The Special Event: From 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, on the hour, a special 5-minute synchronized light-and-music show runs, controlling the LED strips and smart plugs to flash in rhythm to preselected music. This might take extra time to program depending on the song chosen and the capabilities of your selected smart plugs and smart lights.

Conclusion: A Brighter, Smarter Holiday

Integrating smart home technology from HomeControls.com into your holiday decorations does more than just create a stunning display. By utilizing the power and functionality of smart home devices, your holiday decorations transform from static displays into dynamic, interactive experiences. This level of automation is what separates an unforgettable holiday setup from a simple seasonal display. And when the holidays are over, these devices will serve you faithfully long after the trees are taken down, making your home safer and more efficient throughout the year. This holiday season, embrace the future of festivity. With a little planning and the right technology, you can create a holiday display that spreads joy, wonder, and a touch of magic to all who see it.

For more smart home ideas, or any other home security or home automation topics or concerns, feel free to contact our customer service over the phone at (858)-693-8887 or email us at service@homecontrols.com. You can also check out other entries in our blog for more insights about our available smart home automation and security devices, or other smart home topics.