How to control your Christmas lights with Amazon Alexa (with video)

As we get to the festive season why turn your Christmas lights in to smart Christmas lights. Using Amazon Alexa you I control all your Christmas lights via smart plugs. I say “Alexa, turn on Christmas tree lights” and my tree lights turn on. I have also setup Alexa routines which can combine actions together so I can say “Alexa, it’s Christmas” and it turns on my tree lights, outside lights, light up reindeer and Hue lights. I can also say “Alexa, cancel Christmas” and it turns everything off. I have routines setup to turn on the lights automatically when it goes dark outside and turn them off again later.

All you need is a smart plug and an Alexa. For the smart plug there are plenty on sale and in the past I tested a TP-Link HS100 which costs around £28 and a couple of months ago I tested a D-Link mini wi-fi smart plug which costs £19.99 Last year I tested Gosund Smart Plugs which cost only £18.99 for a pair of smart plugs.
It does not really matter which one you use as long as they support Amazon Alexa.

Using Alexa Routines to control your Christmas lights

If you have multiple devices, you can create a routine in the Amazon Alexa to control in one action.

1. Go to the Alexa app and select Routines,
2. Tap on the plus button to create a new one.
   
3. Give your routine a name and tap next
4. The next step is to select the trigger so tap “When this happens”
5. To turn the lights on sunset, click on schedule and select Sunset (you can also offset the time so you can have it earlier or later)
6. For voice control click on Voice and enter your phrase e.g. Turn on Christmas.
7. Then tap on the Add action button and select Smart Home.
8. Select All Devices
9. Select your device and tap on next.
10. You can add an additional plugs or smart lights like Philips Hue by taping on Add action and repeating step 8 and 9

You can also create a routine to turn off the lights, I called mine “Alexa, cancel Christmas” and have it turn the lights off. The setup is the same as the routine to turn them just with the Off option selected.

If you want to take it to the next level you could also get it to play your Christmas playlist at the same time.

In this video I show you how to connect up your smart plugs and create Alexa routines that use voice and sunset as a trigger.