In this, our final blog post before Christmas, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at how modern technologies are changing our traditional festive celebrations. So, put your feet up, get Alexa to play the best of Bing Crosby and scroll through what we’ve discovered.
Goodbye Christmas cards
The first ever Christmas card was designed in the UK by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole, way back in 1843. For almost two centuries, they have been a popular part of the festive season in many countries, but more recently, the number we send has been in decline. Technology, along with the soaring costs of a postage stamp, has played a big part in this. Rather than send a card, it is much easier and cheaper to post a Christmas message on social media or send it by email or WhatsApp. And we can do this as either a static image, video or animation.
Of course, it’s the younger generations that are moving away from traditional cards. While they are still relatively popular with older generations, according to Mintel, less than half of those under 35 buy them at all.
Personal videos from Santa
For many, the term Santa video will bring back memories of popping down to the local Blockbuster on Christmas Eve, rifling through the shelves looking for Die Hard or Home Alone and then coming home to sit down with the family and watch it. Thanks to on-demand streaming services, that experience is now long gone. In its place, however, is something children of the past never got to have – a personalised video directly from Santa, in which they find out whether they are on the naughty or nice list in advance of the big day.
Thanks to modern technology, parents can now upload images and information about their kids to the Portable North Pole and these are embedded into a video where Santa speaks to your child by name, shows photographs of them, tells them what’s on their Christmas list and lets them take a sneaky peak at the elves and reindeer. It’s the perfect combination of the traditional and the modern and has a magical effect on the young ones.
Digital sweaters
Christmas day, it’s the one day of the year when even the image-conscious fashionista isn’t too embarrassed to walk around in a reindeer jumper. Technology, however, has taken this novelty item of apparel to new extremes. At first, they became emblazoned with LED lights and then wired up for sound, playing tinny Christmas songs. Today, you can control those lights and sounds with your smart apps, creating digital messages across your chest in multicoloured lights with an accompanying soundtrack.
Of course, if lighting up your jumper isn’t enough, you can use your smart apps to bring sparkle to your entire home, controlling the lights on your tree and everywhere else. Thankfully, if all that flickering gets on your nerves, you don’t have to leave your seat to fix it.
Easier Christmas dinner
With guests coming around and a ton of food to cook, making sure the Christmas dinner goes to plan can be a stressful occasion. Thankfully, lots of different technologies are now available to make it so much easier. If you’ve forgotten a vital ingredient, online delivery services can now have it at your door in less than an hour. And when it comes to getting the timings right with the cooking, voice assistants like Alexa can set up multiple, individually named timers for you, ensuring everything is ready just as it’s time to sit down.
If your guests are running late, you can always chivvy them along with a text message and track where they are on a find my friends app. Entertainment is also easier, you can create Christmas playlists in advance, stream your favourite movies or TV shows, and instead of board games, you can play TV games like the Chase, Tenable and Pointless on your smart speakers. These devices also come in handy for traditional activities like pass the parcel and musical chairs.
Getting your guests home is also easier, thanks to Uber, and after they have gone, you can get the robot vacuum cleaner to sweep up any bits of leftover dinner that’s spilt on the floor – if the dog hasn’t got them first. All you’ll need to do is tell Google to turn the lights off and crawl into bed.
Summing up
As you can see, while tradition plays an important part in our Christmas celebrations, modern technologies are beginning to have an impact. However, rather than change what we do, it seems they are just changing how we do it.
From all the team at Webhosting UK, have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year. And remember, our technical support team will be available all day, every day, during the holiday season.
