direct xBee communication with Philips Hue smart light bulbs

Philips Hue light bulbs use a Bridge(transmitter) to connect between your network and their smart lights via a ZigBee protocol called Light Link. Can you control the lights directly with your own xBee radio?

I'm most interested in creating my own custom mechanical dimmers and tactile buttons, switches, levers, etc!

Osram Lihgtify and Cree bulbs apparently use Light Link over xBee as well.

hydronics:
Philips Hue light bulbs use a Bridge(transmitter) to connect between your network and their smart lights via a ZigBee protocol called Light Link. Can you control the lights directly with your own xBee radio?

The web page you're linking to explains that the protocol is a ZigBee standard that will interoperate with other ZigBee devices that have a ZigBee profile. This means that most likely the hue light is based on the ZCL (ZigBee Cluster Library), so in order to control it with an XBee radio you'll have to provide your own ZCL software on the XBee or an accompanying processor that probably has more RAM than most Arduino processors.