I tried smart Christmas tree lights that have a surprising twist and I can’t get enough of them

THERE’S a “smart” everything these days – even Christmas tree lights.

Philips Hue launched the Festavia string lights last month and it has a very special trick up its sleeve.

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You can sync it to your Spotify music and the lights will flash in time with the tune.

But they don’t come cheap.

And there is one slight problem with them too – albeit a temporary one.

Read our full verdict below.

Philips Hue Festavia string lights

The Philips Hue Festavia string lights come with 250 mini smart LEDs along a 20-meter cord, giving you plenty to go across a Christmas tree.

Of course, they can be used for any decorative purpose, not just a tree and not exclusively for Christmas.

It’s important to note, they are for indoor use only.

You also need the Philips Hue Bridge device which plugs into your broadband router and allows you to remotely control Festavia and any other Hue smart lights you may have – this has to be brought separately.

Setting up the Philips Hue Festavia string lights is very easy.

Just plug them in and download the Hue app on iOS or Android to get everything connected – it took me less than five minutes.

Festive fun

The Philips Hue Festavia string lights aren’t like any normal Christmas tree lights.

You’re no longer limited to specific colours, nor do you need to have different coloured sets of lights.

With one set, you are in total control with various settings.

First of all, you can set a beautiful gradient of any colours you like, by toggling the start middle and end parts of the lights on a colour grid in the app.

They’ll change instantly so you can see right away whether it works or not.

There’s a candle, fireplace and sparkle effect which look stunning as the lights gently twinkle.

However, I wish you could set these effects to any colour rather than the usual white/yellow.

There are third party apps that you can download to control Hue lights that may be able to do this, but I haven’t tried any – and most of them are paid for.

Lights can be dimmed and set to automatic schedules.

But the real star in all of this is the sync feature.

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Syncing Spotify with Philips Hue

The ability to sync Christmas music – or any music for that matter – with Philips Hue is what really makes Festavia special.

You’ll have to grant permission for Spotify and Hue to work together, which is simple enough to do with the guided instructions.

Whether it’s a fast paced hit like Mariah Carey‘s All I Want For Christmas, or Bing Crosby’s mellow White Christmas, the lights will flash elegantly in time with the music.

It’s so magical seeing the lights sparkle in time with the beat and really adds something extra special to usual Christmas lights.

There are a decent amount of customisation options, though for the most part I quite like the automatic ones.

You can set a type of colour based on themes and adjust brightness.

Intensity is set to automatic by default, but there are four levels to choose from – I quite like going all out with the most intense option going, creating a real flashy Christmas party.

There are two style options – classic and pulse – but I can’t actually tell the difference between them.

So, what’s the problem?

There is one slight hiccup to mention – the Philips Hue Festavia string lights are currently sold out.

They can only be purchased from the Philips Hue website and apparently there won’t be any available again until 2023, so you won’t be able to get hold of Festavia this Christmas.

At £139.99 they are not cheap but these lights are well worth considering if you want some seriously fancy decorations – and not just for Christmas too – when they eventually return.

All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed.

Always do your own research before making any purchase.

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