人们普遍认为，智能家居自动化就是保护您的家(protecting your home)免受入侵者的侵害。然而，家庭安全并不是智能家居技术的唯一能力。您还可以使用您的智能小工具让您的家人和朋友的假期更轻松、更有趣。
以下是您如何在这个假期使用您的智能家居设备，以及您可以在假期找到的最佳智能技术。
如何使用智能家居(Smart Home) 设备(Devices)装饰您的房屋(House)
如果您必须自己完成所有事情，那么为假期装饰您的房子可能既令人兴奋又令人恐惧。如果您没有一双额外的手来帮助您，您可以使用您的智能设备来使您的住所装修更轻松、更省时。这里有几种方法可以做到这一点。
1.使用智能圣诞灯饰
圣诞节(Christmas)装饰的重要组成部分之一是照明。然而，随着电价上涨，您不希望节日灯一直开着，以防您或其他人忘记关掉它们，从而增加您的电费。
这就是智能灯的用武之地：它们为您的日常照明使用添加远程控制、调度和自动化功能，从而为您节省能源使用费用。智能(Smart)照明有不同的类型和形状。这里有一些我们推荐尝试的智能灯。
智能(Smart)灯泡是降低能源成本的最简单方法，同时还能为您的房屋提供节日照明。您所要做的就是用智能LED灯泡替换标准灯泡。与白炽灯泡相比，它的使用寿命延长 25 倍，耗电量减少 75%。
Phillips Hue拥有市场上一些最好的智能灯。它提供范围广泛的室内和室外智能灯泡。您可以使用飞利浦 Hue 智能灯泡(use the Philips Hue smart bulbs)为圣诞节(Christmas)、生日或万圣节(Halloween)派对装饰您的房子，然后将它们作为您的常规灯，以供偶尔使用光疗(light therapy use)。
Popotan 智能圣诞灯(Popotan Smart Christmas Lights)
如果您想在家里布置一些喜庆又不失优雅的东西，请购买智能童话灯。Popotan Smart Fairy 灯串(Popotan Smart Fairy String Lights)将帮助您装饰圣诞树(Christmas)、窗户或露台。您可以获得 16 英尺或 33 英尺长的这些灯。它们都具有 1600 万个彩色LED(LEDs)。与其他LED灯不同，Popotan灯还提供暖白光设置和其他颜色变化，营造出温暖舒适的照明效果。
Popotan灯可与遥控器、应用程序控制（Popotan或Smart Life应用程序）和语音控制配合使用——这些灯与Amazon Echo和Google Assistant扬声器（如Google Nest或Google Home ）兼容。您可以使用该应用程序将灯光与圣诞(Christmas)派对上播放的音乐同步，以获得完全身临其境的效果。
如果您想让您的Popotan灯与Amazon Alexa完美搭配，请务必购买支持 Wi-Fi 的类型。Popotan Fairy String Lights在(Popotan Fairy String Lights)亚马逊(Amazon)上的起价仅为 9.99 美元，是使用智能照明装饰家居的最经济实惠的方式之一。
Twinkly 智能预点亮树(Twinkly Smart Pre-Lit Tree )
如果您不关心保持圣诞灯(Christmas)的成本低廉，并希望拥有智能照明所能带来的所有圣诞(Christmas)气氛，我们建议您选择一棵智能预点亮圣诞树(Christmas)。
市场上有很多智能圣诞树(Christmas)，Twinkly Pre-Lit 圣诞树(Twinkly Pre-Lit Christmas Tree)就是其中之一。它与Alexa配合使用，让您可以设置圣诞树何时开启和关闭的时间表，使用语音命令切换各种颜色模式，并将其与派对上播放的音乐同步。
智能树最好的一点是你不必花时间在它周围放灯串，因为它已经带有内置的装饰灯。
2.使用智能插头(Plugs)进行户外照明(Outdoor Lighting)
您的客厅并不是唯一需要节日装饰的地方。如果你有阳台或庭院，你会想在那里放一些圣诞(Christmas)灯饰。
当然，您可以使用智能户外灯来装饰这些区域。但您也可以使用带智能户外插头的旧灯。这些智能插头是防水的，可以每天在正确的时间打开和关闭您的灯。
您可以使用智能手机通过Google Home或Amazon Alexa控制智能插头或语音命令。查看我们的购买指南，找到一些您可以在亚马逊上购买
的最佳户外智能插头。(best outdoor smart plugs)
3.使用视频门铃的节日(Holiday) 铃声(Chimes)来营造气氛
您可以通过视频门铃发出的节日铃声
让您的客人在您的前门享受圣诞节的气氛。(Christmas)
无论您有 Google Nest智能视频门铃(smart video doorbell)还是Ring门铃，您都可以将铃声更改为有趣的圣诞(Christmas)曲调或其他节日铃声。Google Home / Nest应用程序或Ring应用程序将节日音乐添加到您的门铃中。
除了与圣诞节相关的(Christmas-related)曲调外，Nest还为不同的季节和假期（包括万圣节(Halloween)）提供适时的铃声。
如何在假日聚会期间使用(Holiday Party)智能家居(Smart Home) 设备(Devices)
除了装饰你的房子，你的智能小工具可以帮助你开始你的派对。以下是如何在节日期间使用智能技术招待客人。
4.使用语音助手(Voice Assistant)来管理你的派对(Your Party)
语音助手让您无需使用智能手机上的各种移动应用程序即可轻松运行整个智能家居设置。全新的Amazon Echo Dot（第 5 代）配备出色的扬声器，可以在整个派对期间播放圣诞播放列表中您最喜爱的曲调。(Christmas)如果您的房子很大，您可以设置多个Echo(Echos)以同步播放同一个播放列表，以覆盖更大的区域。
如果您还没有语音助手，智能音箱也可以完成同样的工作。许多现代制造商在他们的蓝牙(Bluetooth)扬声器中都包含配对功能，允许您连接家中的多个扬声器并以立体声播放音乐。
5.使用视频投影仪(Video Projector)播放圣诞节视频(Christmas Videos)
如果你有一面普通的墙或一扇窗户可以用来安装投影仪，你就可以用一些梦幻般的节日视觉效果来装饰你的圣诞(Christmas)派对。它可以是您之前的节日庆祝活动的视频、圣诞老人(Santa Claus)出现的音乐视频，或者降雪或壁炉燃烧的视频——任何最适合您派对主题的内容。
星云胶囊3激光(Nebula Capsule 3 Laser )
需要便携式视频投影仪？查看Anker的(Anker –)Nebula Capsule 3 Laser——一款以实惠的价格提供令人印象深刻的规格的便携式投影仪。
Anker这款新型便携式激光明亮投影仪是在室内或室外播放假日视频和电影的绝佳选择。Capsule 3 Laser仅重 2 磅，因此您可以轻松携带它。在户外使用时，内置 52Wh 电池，续航时间可达 2.5 小时，无需担心电量问题。
Capsule 3 Laser在 1080p HD下显示 300 ISO 流明(ISO Lumens)的亮度——非常适合任何由LED彩灯照亮的空间。您可以使用Google Assistant通过语音命令控制它，或使用Nebula Connect应用程序直接从智能手机激活投影仪。
6. 用你的运动相机(Action Camera)来创造回忆
参加聚会的每个人都会有智能手机一起拍照。然而，由于缺乏照明，而且人们在播放音乐时无法静止几秒钟，因此大多数镜头将无法使用。
如果您想观看聚会的录像并稍后与您的朋友和家人分享，您可以在聚会的中间设置您的运动相机来记录一切。如果它是一个360 度相机(360-degree camera)，一个有趣的想法是将相机放在客厅中间，让它以延时摄影模式记录整个聚会。
不要忘记提前警告每个人摄像头的存在，并确保没有人对录制感到不舒服。
如何使用智能家居(Smart Home) 设备(Devices)进行节后恢复
最后，您的智能小工具可以帮助最大程度地减少聚会的后遗症。以下是智能技术如何通过处理简单的任务（例如叫醒您的家人和在聚会后整理地方）来让您的“早晨”变得更轻松。
7. 使用智能闹钟在(Smart Alarm Clock)圣诞颂歌(Christmas Carols)中醒来
虽然在圣诞节(Christmas)起床对许多人来说很容易，但即使在这样的一天，在您必须自己准备和举办的大型派对之后醒来也可能具有挑战性。早上第一件事就是听到欢快的圣诞(Christmas)颂歌，可以帮助您恢复节日气氛，尽情享受这一天。
如果您想要最好的智能闹钟，我们建议您从Google Nest Hub中选择，如果您想要一个大而明亮的显示屏的设备，或者如果您想要更简单的东西，我们建议您选择带时钟的Amazon Echo Dot 。这两种设备都可以用作智能家居控件，以掌控您的小工具。
8. 使用智能厨房电器(Kitchen Appliances)享受无忧无虑的圣诞早晨(Hassle-free Christmas Morning)
圣诞节(Christmas)的早餐和圣诞(Christmas)晚餐一样重要。在前一天晚上举行了盛大的圣诞(Christmas)派对之后，您可能也没有力气让圣诞(Christmas)早餐变得特别。这就是您的智能厨房电器(smart kitchen appliances)可以为您提供帮助的地方。
冲咖啡、泡茶或为全家人烤面包等许多简单的任务可能会占用您很多时间。只需点击几下，智能(Smart)厨房小工具就可以帮助您准备早餐，并在每个人都围坐在桌子旁之前保持温暖。
如果您的家人有自己喜欢的饮品，智能水壶非常适合快速方便地烧水。手冲咖啡、乌龙茶和英(English)式早餐茶等饮品都有自己的沸腾温度。您可以将智能水壶设置为理想的冲泡温度，并保温 15、30、45 或 60 分钟。
如果你也追求时尚的外观，我们推荐Fellow的(Fellow)Stagg EKG Pro智能电热水壶。这款优雅的鹅颈水壶适合任何类型的厨房。它配备了一个全彩色LCD屏幕，您可以将其设置为用英语(English)、法语(French)或西班牙语与您交流。
如果您需要检查为您的饮料设置什么温度，Stagg Pro有一个指导模式，可以帮助您为不同的咖啡冲泡风格和不同类型的茶选择预设温度。
除了其他漂亮的功能外，您的Fellow Stagg水壶可以在水准备好时发出铃声提醒您。您还可以设定一个时间表，在您起床时准备冲泡茶或咖啡的水。
9.使用机器人吸尘器(Robot Vacuum)进行派对后清洁(Post-Party Cleaning)
无论您是计划一个拥挤的圣诞(Christmas)派对还是与家人共度温馨的夜晚，假期过后您的房子一定会变得凌乱。关于派对后清洁的可怕想法会很快毁掉任何节日气氛。机器人真空吸尘器确保您无需再次考虑清洁地板。
现代机器人真空吸尘器(Modern robot vacuums)允许您设置清洁时间表，并在每天的特定时间自动吸尘和拖地。有些型号，例如Trifo Lucy，甚至可以兼作安全摄像头，您可以在出门在外时用来监视您的宠物。
10. 使用智能按摩器(Smart Massager)缓解压力(Stress Relief)
组织即使是最激动人心的派对也会让人感到压力和疲惫。你应该给自己一些时间，适当地放松你的思想和肌肉。智能按摩器可以帮助您做到这一点。
颈部和背部疼痛是引起不适的最令人沮丧的疼痛。当没有人为您提供颈部按摩时，退而求其次的就是使用智能颈部按摩器，例如Breo iNeck 3 Pro。
这款按摩器非常适合在漫长的一天后躺在椅子上或床上放松，也可以随身携带去旅行或乘坐飞机，因为它的形状像一个旅行枕头。您可以免提使用此设备并通过Breo应用程序对其进行控制。
iNeck 3 Pro具有三种模式，可让您按摩颈部和上背部的每个部位。还有一个设置可以打开热敷和一个速度设置来微调您的按摩过程。如果您的颈部比较敏感，最好将按摩时间控制在 5 分钟以内。如果您需要 iNeck 3 Pro发挥其魔力，请将按摩时间延长至 10 分钟，以消除颈部区域的任何拉伤和疼痛。
该设备的电池一次充电可持续约 2 小时，因此您不必担心每周为颈部按摩器充电超过一次。
可持续家居装饰(Home Decorations)怎么样？
智能(Smart)家居设备在装饰您的家和组织节日派对时可以提供很大的帮助。但是，如果您想减少能源使用和成本，它们并不总是理想的。
为假期装饰房子的另一种方法是用烛光代替圣诞灯。(Christmas)Egloo——一种手工制作的蜡烛加热器——是环保家居装饰的典范。
Egloo是一款多功能环保设备，可用作烛光、加热器、油扩散器和空气加湿器。在他们的网站上，您可以订购自然赤土色的Egloo或选择其中一种精美的设计，包括圣诞主题的陶瓷圆顶。
虽然它不会取代您的电加热器，但这款漂亮的设备会让您的客厅充满美妙的精油香味，并滋润您家中的空气。此外，Egloo非常美观，会给您的房间增添独特的感觉。
10 Fun Ways to Use Your Smart Home Devices for the Holidays
It’s a common belief that smart home automаtion is all about protecting your home from intruders. However, home security isn’t the only thing smart home tech is capable of. You can also use your smart gadgets to make the holidays easier and more fun for your family and friends.
Here’s how you can use your smart home devices this holiday season and the best smart tech you can find for the holidays.
How to Use Smart Home Devices For Decorating Your House
Decorating your house for the holidays can be exciting and dreadful if you have to do everything on your own. If you don’t have an extra pair of hands to help you, you can enlist your smart devices to make decorating your place easier and less time-consuming. Here are a few ways how you can do it.
1. Use Smart Christmas Lighting
One of the essential parts of Christmas decorating is the lighting. However, with the electricity prices rising, you don’t want to have your holiday lights on all the time, driving your energy bill up in case you or someone else forgets to switch them off.
That’s where the smart lights come in: they add remote control, scheduling, and automation to your everyday use of lighting, thus saving you money on energy use. Smart lighting comes in different types and shapes. Here are a few smart lights that we recommend trying.
Smart bulbs are the simplest way to cut energy costs while having festive lighting in your house. All you have to do is replace your standard light bulb with a smart LED one. It will last 25 times longer and use 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb.
Phillips Hue has some of the best smart lights on the market. It offers a wide range of smart bulbs for both indoors and outdoors. You can use the Philips Hue smart bulbs to decorate your house for Christmas, a birthday, or a Halloween party and then keep them as your regular lights for occasional light therapy use.
If you want to have something festive yet elegant in your house, invest in smart fairy lights. Popotan Smart Fairy String Lights will help you decorate your Christmas tree, window, or patio. You can get these lights in 16 ft or 33 ft lengths. All of them feature 16mln color LEDs. Unlike other LED lights, the Popotan lights also offer a warm white light setting and other color variations for some warm, cozy lighting.
The Popotan lights work with remote control, app control (Popotan or Smart Life app), and voice control – the lights are compatible with Amazon Echo and Google Assistant speakers like Google Nest or Google Home. You can use the app to sync the lights with the music playing at your Christmas party for a fully immersive effect.
If you want your Popotan lights to play nicely with Amazon Alexa, make sure to buy the Wi-Fi-enabled type. Starting at just $9.99 on Amazon, the Popotan Fairy String Lights are one of the most affordable ways to decorate your home using smart lighting.
If you’re not concerned about keeping your Christmas lights costs low and want to have all the Christmas spirit you can get with smart lighting, we recommend choosing a smart pre-lit Christmas tree.
There are plenty of smart Christmas trees on the market, and Twinkly Pre-Lit Christmas Tree is just one example. It works with Alexa, allowing you to set schedules for when the tree turns on and off, switch various color modes using voice commands, and sync it to the music playing at your party.
The best thing about a smart tree is that you don’t have to spend time putting string lights around it, as it already comes with built-in decorative lights.
2. Use Smart Plugs for Outdoor Lighting
Your living room isn’t the only place that requires holiday decorations. If you have a balcony or a patio, you’ll want to put some Christmas lights there.
Of course, you can use smart outdoor lights to decorate these areas. But you can also use your old lights with a smart outdoor plug. These smart plugs are water-resistant and can switch your lights on and off at the right time every day.
You can use your smartphone to control your smart plugs or voice commands via Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Check out our buying guide to find some of the best outdoor smart plugs that you can buy on Amazon.
3. Use Your Video Doorbell’s Holiday Chimes to Set the Mood
You can get your guests in the mood for Christmas at your front door with a festive holiday ringtone from your video doorbell.
Whether you have a Google Nest smart video doorbell or a Ring doorbell, you can change your ringtone to a fun Christmas tune or other holiday sounds. You can add holiday music to your doorbell using the Google Home / Nest app or the Ring app.
Aside from Christmas-related tunes, Nest offers timely chimes for different seasons and holidays, including Halloween.
How to Use Smart Home Devices During your Holiday Party
Besides decorating your house, your smart gadgets can help you start your party. Here’s how you can use your smart tech to entertain your guests during the holiday season.
4. Use a Voice Assistant to Run Your Party
Voice assistants make running your entire smart home setup easy without using various mobile apps on your smartphone. The all-new Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) has an excellent speaker that can play your favorite tunes from a Christmas playlist throughout the party. If you have a big house, you can set up multiple Echos to play the same playlist in sync to cover bigger areas.
A smart speaker can do the same job if you don’t own a voice assistant yet. Many modern manufacturers include a pairing feature in their Bluetooth speakers, which allows you to connect multiple speakers around your house and play your music in stereo.
5. Use a Video Projector to Play Christmas Videos
If you have a plain wall or a window that you can use to set up a projector, you can spruce up your Christmas party with some fantastic holiday visuals. It could be videos of your previous holiday celebrations, music videos where Santa Claus makes an appearance, or videos of snow falling or a fireplace burning – whatever fits the theme of your party best.
Need a portable video projector? Check out the Nebula Capsule 3 Laser by Anker – a portable projector that offers impressive specs for an affordable price.
This new portable laser bright projector by Anker is a great choice for playing holiday videos and movies indoors or outdoors. The Capsule 3 Laser weighs just 2 pounds, so you can easily carry it around. When using outdoors, you don’t have to worry about power thanks to the 52Wh built-in battery that can last up to 2.5h.
The Capsule 3 Laser displays 300 ISO Lumens of brightness in 1080p HD – perfect for any space lit by LED fairy lights. You can use Google Assistant to control it with voice commands or the Nebula Connect app to activate the projector right from your smartphone.
6. Use Your Action Camera to Make Memories
Everyone coming to your party will have smartphones to take pictures together. However, most of those shots will be unusable due to a lack of lighting and people not being able to stand still for a few seconds when the music’s playing.
If you want footage of the party to watch and share with your friends and family later, you can set up your action camera right in the middle of the party to record everything. If it’s a 360-degree camera, a fun idea would be to place the camera in the middle of your living room and leave it to record the whole party in timelapse mode.
Don’t forget to warn everyone about the camera presence in advance and make sure nobody feels uncomfortable about the recording.
How to Use Smart Home Devices for Post-Holiday Recovery
Finally, your smart gadgets can help minimize the after-effects of the party. Here’s how smart tech can make your “morning after” easier by taking care of simple tasks like waking up your family and tidying up the place after the party.
7. Use a Smart Alarm Clock to Wake Up to Christmas Carols
While getting up on Christmas day is easy for many people, waking up after a big party that you had to prepare and host yourself can be challenging even on such a day. Hearing cheerful Christmas carols first thing in the morning can help you restore the holiday spirit and enjoy this day to the fullest.
If you’re after the best smart alarm clock, we recommend choosing from a Google Nest Hub if you want a device with a big bright display or Amazon Echo Dot with a clock if you’re after something more simplistic. Both devices can be used as smart home controls to stay on top of your gadgets.
8. Use Smart Kitchen Appliances for Hassle-free Christmas Morning
Breakfast on a Christmas day is just as important as Christmas dinner. After a big Christmas party the previous night, you might not have the strength to make Christmas breakfast special as well. That’s where your smart kitchen appliances can help you.
Many simple tasks like brewing coffee, making tea, or making toast for the whole family can take up a lot of your time. Smart kitchen gadgets can help you prepare breakfast with just a few clicks and keep it warm until everyone gathers around the table.
If your family members have their own drink of choice, a smart kettle is great for fast and convenient water boiling. Drinks like pour-over coffee, oolong tea, and English breakfast tea have their own boiling temperatures. You can set your smart kettle to the ideal brewing temperature and keep it hot for 15, 30, 45, or 60 mins.
If you’re also after a stylish look, we recommend the Stagg EKG Pro smart electric kettle by Fellow. This elegant gooseneck kettle will fit in any type of kitchen. It comes with a full-color LCD screen that you can set to communicate with you in English, French, or Spanish.
In case you need to check what temperature to set for your drink, the Stagg Pro has a guide mode to help you choose a preset temperature for different coffee brewing styles and different types of tea.
Among other nifty features, your Fellow Stagg kettle can alert you with a chime when the water is ready. You can also set a schedule for preparing the water for making tea or coffee when you wake up.
9. Use a Robot Vacuum for Post-Party Cleaning
Whether you’re planning a crowded Christmas party or a cozy evening with family, your house is bound to get messy after the holidays. The dreadful thoughts about post-party cleaning can quickly ruin any holiday spirit. A robot vacuum ensures you don’t have to think about cleaning your floors again.
Modern robot vacuums allow you to set cleaning schedules and automatically vacuum and mop your floors at a specific time every day. Some models, like the Trifo Lucy, even double as security cameras you can use to spy on your pets while you’re away from the house.
10. Use a Smart Massager for Stress Relief
Organizing even the most exciting party can be stressful and tiring. You deserve to take some time for yourself and properly relax your mind and your muscles. A smart massager can help you do just that.
Neck and back pains are the most frustrating pains that cause discomfort. When you don’t have anyone to give you a neck massage, the next best thing is to use a smart neck massager like the Breo iNeck 3 Pro.
This massager is perfect for relaxing in a chair or bed after a long day and taking it with you on a trip or to an airplane, as it’s shaped like a travel pillow. You can use this device hands-free and control it via the Breo app.
The iNeck 3 Pro has three modes that allow you to massage every part of your neck and upper back. There’s also a setting that turns on the hot compress and a speed setting to fine-tune your massage session. If you have a sensitive neck, it’s best to keep your massage sessions under 5 mins. And if you need the iNeck 3 Pro to work its magic, prolong your massage session to 10 mins to eliminate any strains and aches in your neck area.
The device’s battery lasts about 2 hours on a single charge, so you won’t have to worry about charging your neck massager more than once a week.
What About Sustainable Home Decorations?
Smart home devices can be of great help when decorating your home and organizing holiday parties. However, they aren’t always ideal if you want to reduce energy use and costs.
An alternative way to decorate your house for the holidays is to replace Christmas lights with candlelights. Egloo – a handmade candle heater – is a great example of eco-friendly house decor.
Egloo is a multifunctional eco-friendly device that functions as a candlelight, a heater, an oil diffuser, and an air humidifier. On their site, you can order your Egloo in natural terracotta color or select one of the fancy designs, including a Christmas-themed ceramic dome.
While it won’t replace your electric heater, this beautiful device will fill your living room with a nice essential oil scent and moisten your home air. Besides, Egloo is just very aesthetically pleasing and will add a unique feel to your room.
