Are you feeling the heat of the holidaze yet? We're officially in this thing now — ready or not. And with Mercury retrograde and the world low-key falling apart, who doesn't need an extra hand during the holidays? I'll take one. If you're scrambling to get things together and dealing with to-do lists that are two miles long, embrace your cyborg tendencies and take advantage of the many Amazon Alexa holiday hacks that are there for your sanity-preserving, holiday-enhancing enjoyment. Just do it. She's gonna help you and you're gonna love her even more for it.
Since all of us rely on our handy-dandy devices for like, everything anyway, why would we exclude our holiday lifestyle from that? Your Amazon Echo device (along with its resident AI queen Alexa) can help make your holiday dreams come true, even if it's just in the form of making life a little more convenient. Whether you're hosting some holiday meals at your place, scrambling to check off the items on your gift-shopping lists, or just trying to get into the dang holiday spirit (can't a girl just sip some mulled wine and listen to *NSYNC's Home For Christmas album in peace?!), Alexa can help make things more do-able.
Check out a few favorite Amazon Alexa hacks for the holidays that will transform you into a holiday-slaying winter princess. Now, Alexa, read me this article!!!!!
Play All The Holiday Bangers
The easiest way to turn your home into a holiday wonderland is clearly by having Christmas music playing 24/7. I mean, obviously. iHeart Radio's iHeart Santa skill makes it super easy to ask Alexa to open up any one of a selection of free holiday-themed radio stations, some of which are hosted by Santa himself.
Set Timers When You're Doing Mad Holiday Cooking
Whether you're bringing a few sides to a gathering or hosting a holiday at your place, chances are you may be gettin' down with some kitchen madness. If you're baking on rotation, Alexa can easily set multiple simultaneous timers for different dishes. You can even ask for specifics, like a potato timer, and she'll know exactly how long before she should remind you to not set your kitchen ablaze.
Get Fed Your Recipes
Forget IRL cookbooks or attempting to unlock your phone every 30 seconds to keep glancing at whatever recipe you have up. Make life easy and enable any of the hundreds of recipe skills that are available for Alexa so she can tell you step-by-step directions for each dish as you make it.
Do Some Holiday Shopping
Think of the perfect gift for someone? Don't forget it — in fact, go ahead and add it to your Amazon Prime shopping cart immediately via Alexa (just make sure you've enabled the voice purchasing feature and you're good to go). And if you need some last-minute groceries, forget the trip to the store and purchase your goods ASAP using Prime Now instead, if it's available in your local area.
Lists, Lists, And More Lists
Lists sort of run my life during the holidays (and all days, TBH). Whether it's a grocery list, holiday shopping list, pre-travel checklist, or a personal holiday wish list, Alexa can help you organize your thoughts. Just tell her what to add to which list and you can revisit when it's time to review and find all your thoughts in one handy place.
Get Your Holiday Countdown Fix
Whether you're counting down the days until Christmas because you're excited or because you're stressed AF, being able to ask Alexa at any given second how many days away we are from Christmas comes in very handy. Enable the Christmas Countdown skill so you can stay in the know at any time.
Play Some Holiday-Themed Trivia
If we know anything, it's that Alexa knows all, and that means our favorite cyborg also has the full dish on all things related to holiday lore. Ask her about Santa, where he lives, what the deal is with his reindeer — you get the picture, she has the answers. You can also enable the free Winter Holiday Facts skill to get super interesting tidbits about all different winter holidays, including Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and more.
Holiday Light Game = Strong
Holidays are not complete unless you have like, minimum ten strands of string lights strewn about your home. Since no one wants to deal with having to crawl behind couches and dressers to plug in and unplug lights all day, you can either purchase Alexa-compatible smart lights or smart plugs. Then you can easily ask Alexa to turn your holiday lights on or off. Commence softly-lit holiday dreamland now, thank you.
