Christmas time brings out the most interesting of things, from Camaros decked out in Christmas lights to Santa discovering that his sleigh could either be a Lexus or, if the going gets tough, a Ford Bronco. But BMW has a different take on all things festive, and is embracing the latest iDrive 7.0 operating systems rolled out in its latest products to embrace the Christmas spirit over the air. In selected markets from December 24, BMW's Intelligent Personal Assistant available on the likes of the BMW X5 and 2021 3 Series will display a merry message if prompted with "Hey BMW, Merry Christmas." Upon hearing the prompt, a banner will display across the screen, touch it, and a video message will play to celebrate the festive season.

The Christmas message will be available for seven days from December 24 to 31, after which it'll be replaced by a similarly cheerful message to ring in the new year. The banner will either be displayed when starting the car, or when uttering the magic words, "Hey BMW, Happy New Year," or even by accessing the app in the Vehicle menu.

According to BMW, the New Year banner will appear automatically up to three times when starting the car, but will be accessible countless more in the Messages menu after its first activation.

It's all thanks to over-the-air updates on BMW's Operating System 7.0 for software with status 01/2020 or later, and it will be available in 41 countries worldwide. While it seems a trivial little display of what over-the-air software can achieve, it does point towards what the tech is capable of. Imagine emergency alerts being sent out instantly when you're in your car to alert you to a major crisis, an impending disaster, or anything of the sort? Whichever way you look at it, this is a far better Christmas celebration in our eyes than Mercedes' weird jumper-styled Christmas car.