Holidays get hectic, especially when you’re hosting — so why not let your smart home take some work off your shoulders? Today’s smart devices can help you out with schedules, entertainment, time-saving routines and even home security. You probably already have everyday settings ready, but a few changes will be a great help for you, your friends and family.
Here are the top steps I take when hosting events over the holidays. Read on to get ideas for your own home, or learn what devices you may want to add for more peaceful holidays.
Read more: The 7 Most Common Home Security Mistakes to Stop Making
1. Set a seasonal doorbell chime
Video doorbells often come with a feature in settings to switch to seasonal themes, including a variety of holiday sounds for the end of the year. Vivint is particularly good at this, equipping its video doorbell with options for many different holiday songs. Google Nest doorbells and Eufy doorbells also have holiday options.
2. Turn off your indoor cameras
Cameras and guests don’t play well together. Help everyone feel safe by pulling down the shutters on your indoor cameras, nanny cams and smart displays (or disabling them through settings, etc.). Let everyone know their privacy is secured while staying over. Video doorbells and outdoor cams are fine to leave functioning.
3. Schedule your lights for a gentle morning wake-up
Today’s smart lights include options to turn on at certain times of day or at sunrise, and at a specific brightness (and even color temperature). Some even allow you to gradually increase the brightness over an hour or so. Use these settings to set a simulated sunrise in key spots of the house to encourage guests to rise and shine at the right times. It’s especially handy if everyone needs to be up in the morning for a special activity — but make sure to provide coffee too.
4. Give people smart lock passes for a big day out
A smart lock allows for all kinds of tricks, like remote operation and auto-locking if it’s left unlocked. Those work great when you have guests over, but if you want to add even more options, many locks allow you to create temporary passes — including through common apps like Apple Home — and send them to your guest’s phones. That way they can come and go on their own schedules, and the door stays locked when no one is using it.
5. Bump up the smart thermostat temps a bit
Keeping the thermostat triggering temperatures a bit low in winter is a great way to save energy, but not always the sign of a good host. Consider heading into your thermostat app and bumping up temperatures a few degrees, especially at night and the middle of the day, so everyone stays comfortable.
6. Disarm your home security system during the day
Home security system schedules usually call for arming the system during the day after everyone has left the house. That doesn’t work so well over the holidays, especially if you have guests over. Instead of disabling individual sensors, we suggest setting your home security system to disarm during the day.
You can still get important alerts from devices like leak detectors or package-recognizing video doorbells with the system disarmed. And you can leave the night mode armed (which usually lets people move around but monitors doors and windows closely).
7. Create a Wi-Fi guest network
A guest Wi-Fi network is an excellent add-on if you have multiple people coming to visit. It lets you set a separate network and easy-to-remember password for all guest devices, keeping your home network safer and letting you prioritize key home devices. Plus, you can keep reusing it whenever people come over in the future. We’ve got a full guide on how to set a guest network up, but it’s usually very easy with app settings.
8. Download a playlist for your smart home speaker
Smart home speakers like an Echo are excellent devices for playing holiday music for a whole house. But there’s a small problem: With a lot of extra guest devices on your Wi-Fi, music streaming may not be reliable. You can solve this problem by downloading a playlist to a device like a phone or tablet and playing it on the smart speaker via Bluetooth. Many common apps like Spotify let you do this, especially if you have a subscription.
9. Put voice and buy locks on your voice assistants
Voice assistants are handy and fun, but they can be a distraction when others are around, especially if kids start getting creative in their commands. You could turn voice assistants off entirely, but we like the option to limit what they can do.
For example, Alexa has a Voice ID section in its settings that allows you to limit skills and third-party services from working with any voice except the profiles you create and add for you and direct family members. Google Assistant has a very similar option with its Voice Match settings, which limits device controls to only certain voices.
It’s also a good idea to set up a voice code to confirm any purchases made over voice assistants, so people can’t buy something with just a command.
10. Set up an easy-access wireless charger or two
With the ubiquitous Qi charging standard, wireless chargers can work with nearly any phone. Make things easier for your guests by setting out a wireless charger or two for them to use without managing a tangle of power adapters. Bonus points if you offer chargers that have multiple charging pads, sparing your outlets even more.
11. Create motion sensor routines to turn on nightlights
If you have a little extra time, most home security systems can connect to compatible smart lighting and let you create routines to make them more useful. Specifically, we’ve had great results creating night mode routines for security sensors that turn on nearby smart bulbs at low brightness settings when motion is detected.
This way, if someone gets up in the middle of the night, they can have a soft light to help them find their way without disturbing anyone else.
Don’t have a home security system? You don’t need one: Devices like this $50 Philips Hue motion sensor work independently and can automatically tell smart lights what to do when someone approaches.
For more on protecting and utilizing your smart home, take a look at our favorite DIY home security systems, our list of the best smart home devices and our total smart home cheat sheet for all platforms.
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