[Intro]
Welcome to my podcast, Oscar Takes On! Today, I’ll be telling you what my favorite Christmas gifts are that I ever received
[Episode]
In this episode, I’ll be sharing my top five best Christmas gifts
So, let’s start with number 5. Number 5 is something called hue lights. These are lights that can be used as a smart light, or a smart lighting system. You can place these throughout your house and control them all with your phone. If you get the white and color ambiance lights, you can make these lights any color. If you decide to get the white ambiance lights, there are thousands of shades from warm-to-cool that you can pick from. I have the white and color ambiance lights in my bedroom, and I have the hue light strip in my living room. The light strip is just a strip of lights that you can stick on walls, desks, tables, under anything, and they also come in the white ambiance and white and color ambiance
The next gift, number 4 is a foosball table. A foosball table looks kind of like a desk, or a table, but there are plastic people attached to handles that move and it’s like soccer, but on a table. There’s a soccer ball that comes with it, and the object of the game is to get the ball into the other person’s goal. You can play with two people, three people, and four people. A foosball table is a great way to stay busy, especially during the winter months when it’s too cold to play a real game of soccer outside
Number 3 is Google Home. Google Home is a smart-speaker, similar to Amazon’s Alexa. This is a speaker that you can place in a room, and it is a voice assistant so you can ask Google to tell you the weather, play music, even play a podcast! The thing that I use it for the most is actually turning on/off my hue lights in my bedroom. You can pair the Google Home with hue and say, “Hey Google, turn on the bedroom light, or turn on the bathroom light,” so you can ask her to turn on/off lights, dim a light, change the color, and some more controls. Also, if you have a security camera set up and you have Google Nest Hub, which is Google Home with a screen, if you have those two, you can view your security camera from the Google Nest Hub you can just say, “Hey Google, show me the Front Door Camera” or whatever the camera name is. If you ever receive a Google Home, remember to say, “hey, Google. Play ‘Oscar Takes On’.”
Number 2 is Apple TV. Apple TV is a little box that you can plug into your TV with an HDMI cable and once you set it up, you can have access to tons of apps like Netflix, YouTube, and you can download apps on your Apple TV with the App Store. Something really cool about Apple TV is that you can do screen mirroring. Screen mirroring is when you can see exactly what’s on your phone, but on your TV. You can use this for viewing photos, when you’re in a zoom meeting, or anything else that you want on the TV. You can also control hue lights with Apple TV. There’s a button on the remote that has a microphone, and if you press it, Siri will come on. When Siri is there, you can say, “Hey Siri, turn on Living Room,” or whatever the name of the light is. I have some hue lights behind the couch in my living room, so whenever I watch a movie on Apple TV, I like to use the hue lights to create a relaxing environment
The last item, Number 1 is a unique gift, by a company called MixTiles. This company will print your personal photos on high-quality paper and frame them, and they make it very easy to hang your photos in your home or business. If you listened to my podcast episode about nature photography, then you know I love taking nature photos. So, this Christmas, I received a big box from Mixed Tiles that contained 16 of my own photos printed and framed, and I hung them on my bedroom wall. If you would like to see what these photos look like, you can visit instagram.com/natureconfetti and just scroll down a little to find the photos. I’ll also leave that link in the description of this episode. This gift is perfect for children, parents, teachers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles—really, for anyone who appreciates photography. I’m someone who doesn’t like toys too much, and I never make much of a Christmas list, so I was totally surprised and thrilled to receive this special gift that I know I’ll enjoy for many years!
[Outro]
So, just to recap, here are the top 5 gifts I’ve ever received for Christmas:
✓ Hue Lights (2017)
✓ Google Home (2017)
✓ Foosball Table (2019)
✓ Apple TV (2018)
✓ Photo prints (2020)
What are the best gifts you’ve ever received for Christmas? Send me some ideas, and maybe I’ll put them on my Christmas list next year!
