This year, the house got a bit of a makeover, with new paint on the porch railing and columns. “Now that it’s white, our Christmas garland will show up so much better than before,” says mom Kayla Lamb. “I can’t wait to really deck the halls this year.” 

Visitors arriving for holiday gatherings will also be greeted by a festive chime on the Lambs’ Nest Doorbell. Lamb controls the doorbell sound from the Google Home app¹ on her phone, choosing one of the new holiday themes, such as a snippet from “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” that Google releases each year. 

Those celebrating other holidays – such as Hanukkah or New Year’s Eve – will find that their Nest Doorbell can play excerpts of popular tunes like “The Dreidel Song” and “Auld Lang Syne” for a limited time. Nest offers timely tunes in other seasons too, such as creepy chimes at Halloween.

Too busy with holiday preparations to go to the door when the bell chimes? When your Nest Doorbell is connected to Nest Hub, the camera will show you who’s there on the Hub’s screen, hands-free.²

No matter who comes to your door, the Nest Doorbell can send a notification to your devices. Intelligent alerts let you set your doorbells to only send notifications for certain visitors. The doorbell’s camera can identify what type of visitor you have, whether it’s a person, an animal, or a vehicle.² If you enable the doorbell to recognize familiar faces,³ Google Assistant will even announce your guests by name if you have a Nest Aware subscription,⁴ which also gives you the option to record video continuously with the wired version (even for up to an hour when Wi-Fi is down). By limiting your alerts, the doorbell won’t notify you every time it spots your partner coming and going.²

Through her phone, Ali Williams of South Carolina keeps an eye on her front door, where packages pile up around the holidays. The wired Nest Doorbell lets her see visitors and packages. She also relies on notifications through her phone to know when someone has come to the house, turning off the chime to keep the dog from barking.²

“It’s super helpful so that our dog doesn’t wake our kids during their naps,” she says.

The Bells of North Carolina first installed the Nest Doorbell when doing a remodel and watched workers coming and going. Now, it’s coming in handy for the holidays, which involve a big turkey dinner with extended family. 

Gearing up for the big event involves meal planning and grocery shopping – or grocery delivery. The camera on the Nest Doorbell helps the Bells know when they’ve got perishables sitting on the front step.

“We order more food than usual leading up to the holidays and the camera has been very useful in watching over packages left at our house so that groceries don’t sit outside too long,” says dad Grayson Bell.

No matter who or what is at your front door, the Nest Doorbell can help you make the moment more special, or just know what’s happening, wherever you are.