Guide 17 : Seasonal Themes, Day/Night Modes, and Holiday Magic in Home Assistant

Want your smart home dashboard to feel alive and in sync with the world around it? With just a bit of setup, you can make your Home Assistant UI adapt to the season, time of day, or even special holidays.

🎨 What Are Dynamic Themes?

A theme in Home Assistant changes the look and feel of the UI — background, font colors, icon colors, etc.

With a few tricks, you can make themes:

• Automatically switch between light and dark based on sunrise/sunset
• Change to a cozy winter look when it’s cold
• Switch to a spooky Halloween dashboard in October

✅ Step 1: Enable Theme Support

1. Go to Profile (click your user at bottom left)
2. Scroll down to Theme — set it to “Backend-selected”

This lets Home Assistant switch the theme automatically.

🎁 Step 2: Install Themes from HACS

1. Go to HACS → Frontend
2. Click Explore & Download Repositories
3. Search for and install some great themes:
   • Clear Dark Theme
   • iOS Light Mode
   • Google Light Theme
   • Midnight Theme
   • Noctis (beautiful dark variants)
   • Or any seasonal/holiday theme you like

After install, reload resources (top right menu).

🗓️ Step 3: Create an Automation to Switch Themes

Go to Settings → Automations & Scenes → + Create Automation → Start with empty.

Example: Switch to dark mode at sunset:

alias: Switch to Dark Theme at Sunset
trigger:
  - platform: sun
    event: sunset
action:
  - service: frontend.set_theme
    data:
      name: Midnight Theme

And another for sunrise:

alias: Switch to Light Theme at Sunrise
trigger:
  - platform: sun
    event: sunrise
action:
  - service: frontend.set_theme
    data:
      name: Google Light Theme

❄️ Step 4: Add Seasonal Triggers

You can use date/time triggers for seasonal changes.

Example: Switch to a winter theme in December:

alias: Winter Theme for December
trigger:
  - platform: time
    at: "00:00:01"
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ now().month == 12 }}"
action:
  - service: frontend.set_theme
    data:
      name: Noctis Winter

You can also combine this with weather sensors:

condition:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.outdoor_temperature
    below: 5

🎃 Step 5: Go All Out with Holidays 🎉

Add spooky backgrounds in October or cozy lights for Christmas:

1. Use card-mod to set a themed background image:

views:
  - title: Main
    path: main
    background: center / cover no-repeat url("/local/halloween.jpg") fixed

2. Add that to your theme switch automation for holidays.
3. Optional: trigger light scenes or play music with the theme!

🌈 Tips for a Magical UI

• Use different background images per dashboard or season
• Match dashboard icons and accent colors to the theme
• Add Mushroom cards with festive icons or emojis 🎄🎃
• Use input_select to manually override themes if you want full control

🏁 Wrap-up

With just a few automations and themes, you can make your smart home feel truly alive. Your dashboard will change with the sun, the weather, or the calendar — giving your home a unique personality.