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Amazon has enabled its Alexa assistant to lend a hand to bring the Christmas spirit and Santa a little closer to home this year. Through a couple of simple voice commands, kids will be able to interact with Santa for hours of fun.
Read on to enable the mode and see everything that it can do.
Here’s the backstory
As a free skill to Alexa, Amazon has made it easier to speak with Santa this year. There are 18 different interactions that kids can perform, and they will work with most Echo devices. Exceptions include first-generation Echo and Echo Dot and wearables.
To enable the Santa feature, say, “Alexa, enable Hey Santa.” From there, kids can ask questions like:
- Hey Santa, what can you do?
- Hey Santa, tell me about your reindeer.
- Hey Santa, can you laugh?
- Hey Santa, what is your favorite food?
Other commands will result in action from Santa. These include:
- Hey Santa, sing a song.
- Hey Santa, sing “Jingle Bells.”
- Hey Santa, sing “Up on the Rooftop.”
- Hey Santa, sing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
- Hey Santa, sing the “12 Days of Christmas.”
If you are unsure if the Santa voice is for your kids, you can take it for a test drive before making the change. Say, “Hey, Alexa. Introduce me to Santa” for a preview of its capabilities.
What you can do about it
The skill is made available for free to Amazon users in the U.S. and U.K. and can be activated by saying, “Alexa, enable Hey Santa.” If you have more than one Alexa device in your house, you must repeat the command to each one.
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