
How to survive Christmas with Arduino?
Please note: this article was semi-automatically translated from Dutch, translation errors may occur, links will lead to Dutch websites, you are welcome to comment in English.
It's the most wonderful time of the year, getting warm by the Christmas tree, hiding from the snow... Don't get bored out, keep yourself busy with these marvelous Arduino projects!
Decorate the Christmas tree with LED-strips

It's nice to have a Christmas tree with only white lights, but it's much nicer with an RGB LED-strip! Learn how to control RGB LED-strips with Arduino and create the most wonderful effects to enjoy your family. Read our tutorial for making an LED-strip controller here.
Let the Arduino LED-candles burn

If you followed our article on building an IKEA moodlight before than here is your change for a little upgrade. The following code turns your moodlight into a realistic candle without fire hazard. The twinkling effect is randomized by frequency and intensity and looks very nice in the Lykta.
void loop() {
analogWrite(ledRed, random(75) + 180);
analogWrite(ledGreen, random(120) + 135);
analogWrite(ledBlue, random(25) + 25);
delay(random(100));
}
Keep your heatingcosts under control

Holidays, and especially Christmas days, are not good for your wallet. But it's not only the gifts, also energy consumption is very high around these days when you're a lot at home and it's cold outside. Keep your energybill under control by using our energymonitor.
Don't let your Christmas tree die
![Photo by Donnie Ray Jones - Christmas Tree [2010]](upload/arduinokerst.jpg)
The Arduino plantmonitor is your number one tool to prevent your Christmas tree from getting thursty. Put the moisturesensor in the base of your Christmas tree and get notified whenever it runs dry!
Never to young for soldering
No inspiration at all, or trying to get some young folks into electronics? Buy them a Velleman Christmas tree to learn soldering.
Engineer@home wishes you a very merry Christmas!