Despite all the good cheer and jolliness of the season, Christmas can also cause collateral damage, like stress, boredom and cabin fever. To solve some of your problems, we’ve put together a list of 11 apps to make it more fun (or simply less traumatic) this year!
The last-minute scramble for gifts, dinners with annoying relatives, friends who are offended because you forgot to send a card, the expense… there’s usually at least one part of Christmas that you don’t completely love. This year, avoid being the Grinch and approach the festive season using this set of apps.
Merry Christmas!
Xmas Frames for iPhone
We all have relatives or friends that we like to send Christmas cards to. If you’re tired of hitting ‘send’ or trudging to the mailbox, Xmas Frames will solve your problems. Xmas Frames for iPhone is a great way to wish Merry Christmas to family and friends, letting you add festive picture frames to your photos!
Xmas Frames for Android
There’s a similar app for Android, Xmas Frames, but from a different developer. Simply take a photo or load one that you’ve previously saved, add the desired effects, and then send it via WhatsApp, email or bluetooth, for example.
BigOven
A huge part of Christmas is the food, and although you might be a traditionalist, it could be exciting to try new recipes and dishes too! If you want to be adventurous in the kitchen this Christmas, you could try downloading an app like Big Oven to enhance your favorite dishes or help you discover some new ones. With 250,000 recipes and counting, variety is guaranteed.
Noom
Whether it’s because you’re hungover or you have a grandmother who gets angry if you don’t finish the 13 course meal she prepared, eating in excess is the norm at Christmas. With Noom, however, you can try to prevent the excesses from becoming too…well, excessive. The app is designed for those who want to lose weight and follow a diet, but you can also use the function that tells you how many calories you’re consuming to avoid having to commit yourself to a harrowing post-Christmas regime.
Runtastic
Eating carefully isn’t always possible, especially during the holidays. After Christmas, you can always try to remedy it by following a diet plan like with the app Noom. Alternatively, you can try good old fashioned exercise. Runtastic is one of the best applications to help you stay fit- just choose which activity you’re doing, activate the GPS and watch the calories burn!
Download Runtastic for (Android | iOS | Windows Phone | BlackBerry)
Amazon.com
The Amazon app, as well as allowing you to shop from home and avoid the lines at the store, also gives you a way to find out the value of your gifts. If you’re feeling guilty for having bought a simple hair clip for you sister while she gave you a brand new copy of Battlefield 4, this app lets you find out the price of the item on Amazon. This can be useful in the future so that you know how much to spend the following year.
Download Amazon for (Android | iOS | Windows Phone)
eBay
So you’ve received a lace table centerpiece; it’s elaborate, sure, but ugly as hell. You don’t even know where to put it, you don’t have room at home, and, let’s be honest, some extra cash would come in pretty handy. Why not put an ad on eBay and hope that a buyer with a penchant for ugly tablecloths wants to buy the item that you’ve been given?
Download eBay for (Android | iOS | Windows Phone | BlackBerry)
Save the Children
Christmas is a time for giving and its nice to help out those less fortunate around the holiday season. It can be easy to forget, though; we end up thinking about what we want, spending money on useless gifts, and let’s not forget how much food can go to waste. Luckily, donating is easier than ever. Save the Children, for example, has an app for Android and iPhone that allows you to make donations to the famous NGO, a quick and easy way to give a little bit more this holiday season.
ElfYourself
After Christmas dinner, with a full belly and a table full of relatives, the atmosphere can be a bit boring and heavy. To entertain and and give everyone a lift, it’s best to arm yourself before the meal and install an app like ElfYourself. Available in web app form and on iPhone (coming soon for Android), it lets you create a funny video of the people around you, turning them into “elf” versions of themselves.
Subway Surfers
No hope of livening things up? Maybe you just don’t feel like chatting with anyone? WhatsApp and messaging services aside, you should arm yourself with a great game to load up on your smartphone and ride the boredom wave with a long gaming session. Subway Surfers is perfect for this sort of situation: easy to learn with quick games that are super addictive!
Skyscanner
If you’ve had enough of Santa Claus, big dinners, and family time, the holiday season is also a great time to jet off to an exotic destination, go to the mountains and ski, or just visit another city. Skyscanner is probably the best app for finding the best flights at the best prices by showing which days and times are the cheapest.
Download Skyscanner for (Android | iOS | BlackBerry)
Wishing you a Merry (Technological) Christmas
With the right apps, it’s possible to make even your least favorite parts of Christmas a big more enjoyable. If you’re a disaster in the kitchen, someone who can’t control what you eat, or if you just can’t stand another afternoon with your crazy aunt, remember to bring your (charged) smartphone everywhere you go!
Which apps will help you survive the Holiday season?
[Original article via Softonic IT]
