New Year's countdown
Counts down to midnight from a real-time clock, then fireworks.
Learn
Arduino holiday projects for every celebration, month by month
Intermediate
Or see every lesson.
- 261parts on the bench
- 31boards running now
- 1.00xreal time, on every board
Press the button for the grand finale
Rockets on a 30-LED WS2812B strip, running on a simulated ATmega328P. Press the button for the finale.
Holidays
Lights for every celebration, tested before you buy a part
Holidays are the best reason to build something with the people around you. This page gathers Arduino builds for celebrations across the whole year and across many cultures: a menorah that lights in the right order, a kinara with the day’s principle, a row of diyas, a lantern for Lunar New Year, a crescent and star for Eid, ofrenda candles, a beating Valentine heart, a ball drop for New Year’s Eve and more. Every one runs in your browser right now, on the real sketch, with nothing to install.
The fireworks above are running on a simulated Arduino Uno: rockets climb a strip of LEDs and burst into sparks, with a piezo whistling on the way up. Press the button for the finale. Each build below has its own page with the wiring and the full sketch, and each holiday has its own list on the projects page.
Ready to run
Thirty builds, month by month
Each card opens the real wiring and sketch. Press the buttons, turn the knobs, then make the colors and the words your own.
New Year's ball drop
A ball of LEDs glides down on a servo over the last ten seconds.
Lunar New Year lantern
A red lantern with flickers of gold that lights itself at dusk.
Red envelope box
A box that swings open and shows a good wish.
Lion dance head
Eyes that flash to a drum beat, and go wild for the greens.
Light-up Valentine heart
A heart on an LED matrix that beats lub-dub.
Love meter
Hold the sensor and a bar of LEDs fills with your warmth.
Send a heartbeat
Press yours and the heart on theirs beats twice.
Pi digits on an LCD
100 digits of pi, worked out on the Uno and run across an LCD.
Buffon's needle
Random needles on a floor of lines close in on pi.
Rainbow to the pot of gold
A flowing rainbow runs to a shimmering pot of gold.
Pot-of-gold treasure box
A treasure box that opens only for the lucky code.
Holi color mixer
Three knobs mix the light, and a button throws a splash.
Holi color catcher
Catches the colors you hold to a sensor, in a row.
Crescent and star lantern
A crescent moon and a twinkling star that light at dusk.
Eid greeting card
Eid Mubarak with a crescent and star, in five languages.
Egg hunt finder
Beeps faster and glows warmer as you near the hidden egg.
Hatching chick
A chick wobbles, cracks and peeps its way out of an egg.
Lights-out reminder
Chimes when a lit room has been empty for a while.
Message display gift
A small screen full of notes you write yourself.
Kind words night light
Fades up to soft amber at dark and says something nice.
LED fireworks
Rockets climb a strip and burst, with a button for the finale.
LED sparkler
Burns down from tip to handle, and never gets warm.
Ofrenda candles
Six candles, one for each person remembered.
Marigold path
Glows like a path of marigold petals to the ofrenda.
Diwali diya row
Eight lamps light one by one, then flicker like oil flames.
Rangoli lights
Glowing patterns, symmetric eight ways from the center.
Hanukkah menorah
The shamash first, then tonight’s candles, newest first.
Dreidel spinner
Spins through nun, gimel, hei and shin and keeps the pot.
Kwanzaa kinara
One more candle each day, with the day’s principle.
Looking for something else? See every project.
A note on dates
Some of these holidays fall on the same date every year, and many do not. Lunar New Year, Holi, Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hanukkah follow lunar or lunisolar calendars, or are worked out from the moon, so they move from year to year in the calendar most of us carry. The builds for those holidays never claim a date: a button lights the next night of the menorah or the next day of the kinara, and the lanterns light at dusk. Where this page names a month, it is where the holiday usually falls.
January and February
New Year’s Eve, December 31st into January 1st. The New Year’s countdown keeps time on a DS3231 clock and counts down to midnight on a four-digit display, working out the target from the clock so it never needs a date typed in, then sets off fireworks on a ring of LEDs. The ball drop lowers a ball of LEDs on a servo over the last ten seconds, gliding with the clock rather than stepping with the beeps.
Lunar New Year, in late January or February, celebrated across East and Southeast Asia and around the world. The lantern glows red with flickers of gold and lights itself at dusk. The red envelope box swings open on a servo and shows a good wish on an LCD. The lion dance head opens its eyes, flashes them to a drum beat, and goes wild when you feed it the greens, the custom called cai qing.
Valentine’s Day, February 14th. A heart on an 8x8 LED matrix beats lub-dub. The love meter is the classic: hold a temperature sensor and a bar of LEDs fills with your warmth. And the heartbeat pair is two Unos with radios: press the button on yours and the heart on theirs beats twice.
March and April
Pi Day, March 14th. One Uno works out 100 digits of pi with a spigot algorithm, with no table of digits stored anywhere, and runs them across an LCD. Another drops thousands of random needles on a floor of lines, Buffon’s needle, and closes in on pi from the crossings alone.
St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. A flowing rainbow runs along an arch of LEDs to a pot of gold that shimmers at the end, and a treasure box opens only for the lucky code typed on a keypad.
Holi, the festival of colors, on the full moon of the Hindu month of Phalguna, usually in March. The color mixer lets three knobs mix red, green and blue light, with a button that throws a splash of bright colors. The color catcher reads anything you hold to a color sensor and keeps a row of the colors you have caught.
Easter and spring, on a Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th in the Western calendar, and often later for Orthodox churches. The egg hunt finder beeps faster and glows warmer as you point it toward a glowing egg hidden in a dim room. The hatching chick wobbles, cracks and peeps its way out of an egg on an LED matrix.
Earth Day, April 22nd. The lights-out reminder notices a lit room that nobody has moved in for a while and chimes a gentle reminder. The solar node and the plant monitor in the gallery fit the day too.
May, June and July
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, the second Sunday of May and the third Sunday of June in the United States, with other dates in other countries. The message display gift is a small screen full of notes you write yourself, for a mom, a dad, a grandparent or anyone who looks after you. The kind words night light fades up to a soft amber at dark and says something nice.
The Fourth of July. LED fireworks climb a strip and burst into sparks, with a button for the finale, and an LED sparkler burns down from tip to handle, throwing gold and white sparks, without ever getting warm.
Eid, through the year
Eid al-Fitr comes at the end of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha about ten weeks later. The Islamic calendar is lunar, about eleven days shorter than the solar year, so both move earlier each year and visit every season. The crescent and star lantern lights a warm crescent moon and a twinkling star at dusk, and the Eid greeting card shows Eid Mubarak with a crescent and star drawn on an LCD, and the same wish in Arabic, Malay, Hausa and Somali.
October, November and December
Halloween, October 31st, has its own page of porch props, from a fog machine trigger to a talking skull.
Día de los Muertos, November 1st and 2nd. The ofrenda candles are six LEDs, one for each person remembered, each flickering on its own. The marigold path glows like a path of cempasúchil petals from the door to the ofrenda.
Diwali, the festival of lights, in October or November, celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and many Buddhists. The diya row lights eight small lamps one by one, then flickers them like oil flames. The rangoli lights draw glowing patterns on a 16x16 panel, each symmetric eight ways from the center.
Hanukkah, eight nights from the 25th of Kislev, in late November or December. The menorah lights the shamash first, then tonight’s candles from left to right, newest first. The dreidel spinner whirls through nun, gimel, hei and shin and keeps score of the pot.
Christmas, December 25th, has its own page of lights, from a tree topper star to a light show synced to music.
Kwanzaa, December 26th to January 1st. The kinara lights the black candle on the first day, then red and green, one more each day, with the day’s principle of the Nguzo Saba on an LCD.
Test it in the browser first
Every build opens in the editor with its wiring on a real breadboard and its sketch in the code pane. Press Run and the firmware runs on a model of the Uno’s ATmega328P, with the LEDs, servos, sensors and screens answering the way the parts do. Press the buttons, turn the knobs, drag a light sensor’s slider to make it dusk. Then make it yours: your own colors, your family’s greeting, your own messages. The same sketch uploads to a real Uno from the Arduino IDE.
Most of these builds use WS2812B LEDs. A few are fine on the Uno’s 5 V for testing, but a strip or a panel needs its own 5 V supply sized for the LEDs, with the grounds joined, and the brightness kept sensible. Servos want their own supply too. Real candles and real fireworks are wonderful, and LED ones are a safe stand-in for a classroom, a window full of paper decorations, or the smallest hands at the party.
Course
Build one step by step
The Build lights for the holidays course takes four of these, for New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Diwali and Hanukkah, one lesson each. Each lesson opens the real build, asks you to run it, and explains the one idea that makes it work, with a check that goes green when you have it.
FAQ
Questions
What are good Arduino projects for the holidays?
Light builds are the easiest place to start: a row of LED diyas, a menorah, a kinara, a lantern that lights at dusk, or LED fireworks on a WS2812B strip. Each needs an Uno, a strip or a few LEDs and a button, and all of them on this page run in the browser first.
How do the menorah and kinara builds handle dates that change each year?
They do not use dates at all. A button moves to the next night of Hanukkah or the next day of Kwanzaa, so they are right every year. With a real-time clock and a table of dates you could make them light themselves.
Can I try these Arduino holiday projects without buying parts?
Yes. Every build on this page runs in a free browser simulator on the real sketch, with no account needed. You can press the buttons, turn the knobs and change the code before you buy anything.
Are LED candles a good idea for an ofrenda or a menorah?
They are a safe choice near paper decorations, dry flowers and curtains, and in classrooms. Many families still keep real candles for the moments that matter most to them, and an LED build sits happily beside them.
Related
Keep going
Arduino Halloween Props to Build in Your BrowserArduino Christmas Lights to Build in Your BrowserESP32 NeoPixel (WS2812B) Rainbow TutorialArduino MAX7219 8x8 LED Matrix: Wiring and CodeArduino Servo Motor with a PotentiometerArduino Projects for Beginners, Each One RunningNew Year’s countdownIntermediateNew Year’s ball dropBeginnerLunar New Year lanternBeginnerRed envelope boxBeginnerLion dance headIntermediateLight-up Valentine heartBeginnerLove meterBeginnerSend a heartbeatAdvancedPi digits on an LCDIntermediateBuffon’s needleIntermediateRainbow to the pot of goldBeginnerPot-of-gold treasure boxIntermediateHoli color mixerBeginnerHoli color catcherIntermediateCrescent and star lanternBeginnerEid greeting cardBeginnerEgg hunt finderBeginnerHatching chickBeginnerLights-out reminderBeginnerMessage display giftBeginnerKind words night lightBeginnerLED fireworksIntermediateLED sparklerBeginnerOfrenda candlesBeginnerMarigold pathBeginnerDiwali diya rowBeginnerRangoli lightsIntermediateHanukkah menorahBeginnerDreidel spinnerBeginnerKwanzaa kinaraBeginnerThe project page, with the full sketchIntermediate
Build this for real
Open the editor, change a value and watch the number move with it. Nothing to install, and no account needed.