Christmas is just around the corner and Amazon has some great new Alexa smart speaker features to get you in the festive mood.
The fun features include a “Hey Santa” experience for your kids and an interactive Christmas countdown routine.
Below are five Christmas Alexa hacks you should try right now.
“Hey Santa” on Alexa
The ability to speak to Santa via Alexa has been around for a few Christmases but Amazon has added some new aspects.
It explained: “We’ve introduced Santa, a new personality for Alexa that will bring Christmas cheer for the whole family.
“You can ask Santa to tell you a story, sing a song, crack a joke, set a timer, and more, just say “Alexa, enable ‘Hey Santa’” to get started.
“Santa also has a special duet with award-winning singer-songwriter, Meghan Trainor, which you can listen to exclusively on select devices with Alexa by saying “Hey Santa, sing your duet with Meghan Trainor” after enabling Hey Santa.”
Track Santa
Alexa will also help you located Santa if you ask “Alexa, where is Santa?” or “Alexa, how many days until Christmas?”
Check if you’re on the good list
Ask “Alexa, am I on the nice list?” if you want to find out your Christmas fate.
Make a festive ‘Routine’
You can go to the Alexa app and set up a ‘Routine’ for a Christmas countdown.
This tells you how many days until the big day, turns on your fairy lights and plays festive music.
Just make sure you have a smart plug on your Christmas lights.
Ask Alexa for Christmas cooking tips
If you need Christmas recipe tips you can ask “Alexa, how do you make gingerbread?” or“Alexa, how do you make mulled wine?”
Other fun questions include “Alexa, sing a Christmas song” or “Alexa, do you like my Christmas jumper?”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.