Rocking about the AR tree

Lara Williams, Editor-at-large

Despite the needles, the expense and the stress of getting them into the house, nothing makes you feel more festive than a good Christmas tree. But can technology make them any easier to deal with?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. But yuletide joy comes fraught with festive stress, not least when it comes to buying the tree.

Everyone’s done it – been seduced by a magnificent 6ft pine tree, wrestled it into the car and got it home to find that it either just doesn’t fit or that there’s nowhere for it to go, leaving it squished into a corner or getting in the way of the TV. In fact, 38% of people in the UK admit to buying the wrong size tree.

Source: IKEA

Thankfully, technology is here to solve our problems. IKEA Place, the augmented reality app that allows you to try virtual furniture out in your home before you buy it, has added a seasonal feature to allow you to test out Christmas trees before you bring it home.

With a choice of four trees, you can now experiment without having to drag your Silver Fir about the house (meaning less needles to hoover up afterwards.) The app allows you to move around to see what the tree looks like from all corners of the room, as well as take pictures so you can truly compare what your tree looks like by the window or next to the sofa.

The four choices are between IKEA’s classic FEJKA 6ft faux tree, a magnificent 7.4ft Silver Fir, a 6.6ft minimalist option and a tiny 3.3ft tree for the smallest of spaces.

One for the kids

If you still can’t find an appropriate place for your tree and you don’t want to disappoint the little ones, Dr Panda has a solution for you. Their latest game consists of an AR Christmas tree that you can decorate however you please.

The game features an in-app advent calendar and users can also find gifts of additional decorations scattered throughout the world, Pokemon Go style.

Designed to be intuitive and safe for children as young as three to use (read: no in-app purchases or adverts), it’s a fun and joyful way to keep the kids entertained over the Christmas holidays.

Source: Dr Panda