‘Twas the night before Christmas, in the automated home,
Not a device was stirring, not even one;
Google Home was set by the chimney with care,
Waiting for “Hey Google” to hang in the air;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of Phillips Hues danced in their heads;
And mamma with her Arduino, and I with my Pi,
On Adafruit with accessories in cart ready to buy,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I looked at my Nest Cam to see what was the matter.
Seeing nothing, I asked Alexa in a flash,
“What’s outside, can you open the sash?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand…” she sweetly said,
And I realized the word “sash” was outdated and dead.
I manually opened the blinds to take a peek,
And saw a miniature sleigh shiny and sleek,
With no driver, only AI so lively and quick,
Was it a single company making it tick?
No! It was Santa, a hub controlling his tools,
Calling them by name on this evening of Yules,
“Now, Uber! now Volvo! now Mercedes and Google!
On Tesla! on, Toyota! on, Chrysler and Apple!
Get around that pedestrian and avoid that wall!
Now steer away, drive away, avoid any collision at all!
I stared as he flew, and dropped my Pi Zero,
“Wow! Level 5 Autonomy! Santa, my hero!
Did he use networks of mesh or nets of neural?
Or AWS or Azure or another cloud cure-all?
And then, LEDs twinkling, I saw on the roof,
St. Nick disappear in a smoky electrical poof,
I unlocked my Kwikset Kevo, opened the door,
And came face-to-face with St. Nick. Score!
He was dressed in smart fabrics, from his foot to his head,
His clothes glistened with fiber optics in every thread,
A bundle of sensors he tied into his sack,
Both ancient and modern, from his front to his back,
I wondered—how did it all work? his fabric, so airy!
His systems, secure; his wireless signals didn’t vary!
His sensors were tiny! The power draw? Low!
And everything seemed lit by a magical glow;
I asked outright, “What’s your secret here, Nick,
with no screen to touch, no mouse to click?”
With a deep voice both musical and warm,
“There’s only one secret to this digital swarm,
There’s magic around us, surely you feel it,
That power and connection? It’s the Christmas Spirit!”
By a wink of his eye and a nod of his head,
I realized his meaning, though he left it unsaid.
Any technology, if it’s sufficiently advanced,
Can feel like magic and leave you entranced.
And the Christmas Spirit? I know that, too,
Working together makes IoT dreams come true,
I heard him exclaim while he flew out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, your future looks bright!”
