Christmas Lights You Can Set to Music
We tried out a musical light set from Twinkly to see if it could create a fun holiday display
Every holiday season, videos of elaborate home light shows set to music make the rounds on social media and local newscasts. What you don’t see, though, are the complex wiring, expensive lighting controllers, and meticulously programmed software that make them run. But if you want to give your own holiday lights some of that whimsy on a simpler, less ambitious scale, there is an easy way to do it—smart holiday light sets.
As the name suggests, these lights are far from simple multicolored strings. These sets can change colors, display elaborate patterns, and even react in sync to music. The main player in this niche product category is an Italian brand called Twinkly. (Last year’s version of this article included reviews of sets from Holiday Showhome and Lumations, but they didn’t come back to market this year, probably because of ongoing supply chain issues.)
The price of a single Twinkly set ranges from $60 to $200, and you may find them sold under other brand names, such as Kurt Adler. These lights also connect to WiFi so you can customize the light patterns from your smartphone and control them with your voice via Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant smart speakers.
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Twinkly Generation II Strings and Music Adapter
Twinkly Twinkly
Price: $60 to $200 per light set; $30 for optional music adapter
Light types: Strings, Icicle Strings, Curtains, Clusters, Spritzers, Festoon Bulbs
Where to buy: Twinkly Strings at Amazon, Twinkly Music at Amazon; Twinkly Strings at Best Buy, Twinkly Music at Best Buy; Twinkly Strings at Target; Twinkly Strings at Walmart, Twinkly Music at Walmart
If you want holiday lights that can display elaborate patterns, Twinkly won’t disappoint. These lights connect to your smartphone via WiFi and use its camera to create a 2D or 3D map of the bulbs. With that map, you can change the color of each individual bulb to create highly detailed light patterns.
When I tried out the lights, the setup process was a little clunky at first. The app tried to connect to the lights automatically but couldn’t, so I had to make the connection manually. That worked perfectly, though, and soon I was swiping through preprogrammed light effects on my phone to see how they looked.
Using the Twinkly app, you can also create your own patterns by “painting” on the digital map of the lights with your finger. You can create both static and moving effects, but the moving effects are limited to certain types of patterns, such as stripes and gradients.
Another weird drawback: The set won’t play music to a customized light pattern. For that, you have to choose one of the premade light patterns.
Also, to play music you have to keep your phone next to the speaker you’re using outside. (The set uses your phone’s microphone to “listen” to the music to make the lights work). Or you can buy the $30 music adapter, which has its own microphone, but the adapter works only with its own dedicated set of effects—another limitation.
All of this can be a little confusing, but once you’ve zeroed in on the light pattern and/or music you want, the Twinkly set is appropriately spectacular. It’s fun and colorful, and almost gives off a nightclub vibe, if that’s your thing.
