I discovered Festivitas two weeks before Christmas when my daughter complained that our Mac “looked boring” compared to all the holiday decorations around the house. After installing this delightful app by Simon Støvring, our dock suddenly sparkled with twinkling lights, and even she had to admit our computer looked pretty festive.
Festivitas does something wonderfully simple: it adds customizable holiday lights to your dock and menu bar. But the level of customization available surprised me. You get three animation effects - Twinkle creates gentle sparkles, Wave sends pulses of light across your dock, and Chase makes lights race from end to end. I’ve been rotating between them depending on my mood.
The variety of light bulb shapes is impressive. Beyond basic ovals and circles, there are hearts, stars, candy canes, and seasonal designs. My personal favorite is the heart shape with a slow twinkle effect - subtle enough for work Zoom calls but festive enough to brighten dreary January afternoons. You can mix and match colors from preset palettes or create your own combinations.
What really won me over is the mouse interaction feature. Move your cursor over the lights and they respond - brightening, changing color, or switching patterns. It’s a small detail that makes the whole experience feel alive rather than just decorative.
Performance on my M2 MacBook Air has been flawless. The app uses roughly 25MB of memory and virtually no CPU during normal operation. Even with the most intensive Chase animation running, I haven’t noticed any slowdown in other applications. Simon clearly optimized this well.
You can choose to display lights in just the dock, just the menu bar, or both. I run dock-only at work to keep things professional, then switch to both at home for maximum festive impact. The spacing and animation speed are fully adjustable - I prefer tighter spacing with slower animations for a more elegant look.
The app requires macOS 14.6 or later and uses a “pay what you want” pricing model starting at €4. I paid €10 because the app brought genuine joy during a stressful month, and Simon’s attention to detail deserves support. Plus, he’s been adding new light designs with each update.
One minor quirk: on my 14-inch MacBook Pro, the menu bar lights occasionally get hidden behind the notch when I have many other menu bar apps running. Not a dealbreaker, just something to keep in mind if you have a crowded menu bar.
The tech press has been unanimously positive - TechCrunch, Forbes, and MacStories all highlighted how polished Festivitas feels. It maintains a 4.9/5 star rating from over 300 users, with 95% giving it five stars. Those numbers don’t lie.
After the holidays ended, I kept Festivitas installed. The heart-shaped lights work perfectly for Valentine’s Day, and I’m curious what Simon will add for other celebrations throughout the year. Sometimes the best apps are the ones that simply make you smile when you sit down at your computer.
