What Is a “Smart” Light?
When we talk about “smart” lighting, we simply mean any switches or lights that can be controlled remotely. That typically works through an app on your phone and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or a hub with Z-Wave/Zigbee. For the purposes of holiday decorating, we’ll be focusing on smart lights, which can include bulbs or string lights.
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Change the Color, Not the Bulb
Christmas is most likely the holiday you think about when it comes to holiday lighting, but smart lights can expand your horizons. There’s a clear advantage for smart lights over regular holiday lighting products.
If you wanted to have special lights for Halloween and Christmas, you’d typically need to swap your string lights or porch bulbs to get the right colors for each holiday. Up goes the purple and orange in October, then down it goes in favor of red and green in December.
With smart lights, there’s no putting up or taking down. You simply choose the color in the app on your phone. Not only does that remove a lot of the legwork, it makes it easier to decorate for other events, too. You may not do much decorating for the 4th of July, but now you can throw up some red, white, and blue lights in an instant.
That’s the basic idea behind smart lights for holiday decorations. You put up the lights once, then change the colors to match the season.
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Best Smart Lights for Holiday Decorations
There are clearly obvious benefits of using smart lights in your holiday decorations. Let’s take a look at some of the best options for your living space.
There are tons of great options for singular smart bulbs. We have a full guide on the Best Smart Light Bulbs that you can check out. The Wyze color-changing bulbs are a great budget choice for lamps or sconces on the outside of your house.
To mimic the look of traditional holiday string lights, we like the ELlight Outdoor String Lights. These are waterproof, so they can be hung up outside. You get a bunch of customization options for colors and a variety of fun effects.
For a different look, try the Govee Smart Outdoor String Lights. The larger bulb style is perfect for patios and balconies. They’re rated IP65 for outdoor use, dimmable, and the app includes 40 different scene modes to choose from.
Smart home tech makes a lot of things easier, including your holiday decorations. You may spend more upfront, but the ability to leave the lights in place and change the colors for each season is much more coinvent—and it looks impressive.
