Make your fairy lights smart

No more crawling behind the Christmas tree to turn the fairy lights on – why not make them smart, and control them with your smartphone? For as little as £20, you can get a smart plug (take a look at Tp-link, Wiz, Philips Hue or Amazon Alexa) and connect your existing fairy lights to it. Or, if you have several sets, the Meross Power Strip (£29.99, Amazon) is a smart extension lead with four outlets that are all individually controlled. Alternatively, Twinkly’s app-controlled fairy lights can change colour, flash using different patterns or even pulse to the beat of any music playing – perfect for kitchen discos. Once you’re connected, you can program schedules for your Christmas lights to go on and off at set times, so it happens automatically every day. Better still, sync your lights to your voice-assistant hub (such as Apple Homekit or Google Home) and you’ll be able to turn them on and off simply by asking.