If you want to show off your Christmas spirit, by now you should have your home decorated with typical ornaments, including a Christmas tree. And if you want to go a step further, you can even decorate your Mac with a unique Christmas style. And no, it’s not just about changing the wallpaper.
Developer Simon B. Støving has created a simple application that reminds us of other times in macOS. It’s called ‘Festivitas’ and simply adds lights to the Mac’s applications dock. It is customizable and adapts even if you have the dock on the right or left side of the screen.
‘Festivitas’ is an application that requires a minimum donation of 5 euros for its developer. It’s actually 4 dollars minimum, but adding taxes and currency exchange, it ends up being those 5. To download it, you have to go to the ‘Festivitas’ website and click on the ‘I want this!’ button next to the donation amount.
Once the payment is made and the application is downloaded, you will see that it is very easy to configure. First, you must grant accessibility permissions by going to System Preferences > Privacy and Security > Accessibility and checking ‘Festivitas’ there.
Once that is done, you will see that ‘Festivitas’ appears in the top menu bar of the Mac. By clicking on it, you can open its settings and configure the type of lights you want to have, both colors, blinking speed, and even light intensity.
You can also configure another strip of lights for the Mac’s top menu bar. Like with the dock lights, there are several options available to achieve the desired light and color effects. However, keep in mind that in the long run, as festive as it may be, it can be tiring.
Moreover, if you want the lights to always appear, it is advisable to set ‘Festivitas’ as one of the apps that open as soon as the Mac starts up. You can do this from System Preferences > Startup Items and Extensions > Open at login and check that ‘Festivitas’ appears. Otherwise, click on the ‘+’ button and add it.
