Holiday App Festivitas Adds Animated String Lights and Snow Effects to Apple Devices - MacRumors
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Holiday App Festivitas Adds Animated String Lights and Snow Effects to Apple Devices

Last year, developer Simon Støvring came out with a fun little holiday-themed Mac app called Festivitas. Festivitas adds colorful string lights to your Mac's dock and menu bar, and this year, it can do even more.

festivitas app
Festivitas received a 2025 holiday update today, and now it supports gently falling snow for an even cozier feel. Snow interacts with the mouse cursor, parting around it, and if you have a second or third display, snow expands across all of your monitors. Lights and snow can now be set to start at a specific time with a new Shortcuts integration.

festivitas app
There are new light options for 2025, including color presets and the option to choose from tons of different shapes. You can customize light shapes, color, size, opacity, drop height, cable thickness, and more in the Settings. Lights can animate, and there are pulse, twinkle, chase, and wave patterns. Snow can also be adjusted with options for amount, flake size, fall speed, and wind.

Snow and lights can be displayed over all of your app windows, or just on the desktop, which is nice for a more minimal holiday experience. You can import and export color palettes, and customize your color selections. Like last year, the Mac app requires accessibility features to add lights to the dock, which the app prompts you to grant when starting it up for the first time.

festivitas app ios
Festivitas also now works with the iPad and the iPhone in addition to the Mac. On the iPhone and ‌iPad‌, lights can be added to the Home Screen using widgets, with customization options to change the aesthetic. The lights are designed to be put around photos, which is a cute effect.

Festivitas for the Mac offers customer-selected fair pricing starting at 4 euros, and it can be downloaded from the Festivitas website. The iPhone and ‌iPad‌ app is available from the App Store, and it too offers customer-selected fair pricing between $3.99 and $9.99. [Direct Link]

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Top Rated Comments

attohs Avatar
17 weeks ago
I like silly things like this. It’s fun. Remember flying toasters on the classic Macs? Oh and that app that would have Oscar the Grouch sing whenever you emptied the trash!
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johannnn Avatar
17 weeks ago

STARTING PRICE AT 4 EUROS FOR MAC VERSION AND $3.99 FOR iOS?!?!?? THATS OVERPRICED!!!!!!! 😡
This kind of visual customization usually takes more engineering than people expect. The price makes sense given the scope.

And honestly, writing in all-caps with an angry emoji doesn’t feel like a fair way to discuss it. That kind of reaction is exactly why the App Store is overflowing with free apps that hide everything behind subscriptions.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
17 weeks ago
What a lovely app. It reminds me of the creativity and whimsy from the final days of OS 9 and the early days of OS X.

Flying toasters and bad dog screensavers. System sounds and appearance themes. Completely useless, but delightful.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
17 weeks ago
I bought this last year! It’s nice to have some whimsy on my computer again. 🙂
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TFrank2 Avatar
17 weeks ago

I like silly things like this. It’s fun. Remember flying toasters on the classic Macs? Oh and that app that would have Oscar the Grouch sing whenever you emptied the trash!
Agreed. I know most of this is hokey but I feel like it’s a small slice of how things used to be!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
QuarterSwede Avatar
17 weeks ago

Just purchased both versions! Could someone reach out to Simon (I don't have Mastodon) to submit a request for dynamic text on the iOS widget? For example, a Christmas countdown "[X] days until Christmas!"
Some other basic dynamic text options would be awesome too, current temp, etc. (whatever would be possible to pull in).
Done.



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Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)